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1^7^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, ^j 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



A CHARACTER SKETCH 



FRANK STRONG, A.M., Ph.D. 

Lecturer in History in Yale University 



WITH ANECDOTES, CHARACTERISTICS AND 
CHRONOLOGY 



dansville, n.y. 
Instructor Publishing Co, 



t-^0(^ 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

dlV% ib^ji^v* (deceived 

APR 8 1903 

Copyright tntry 

1^ b J 5 r 
,> copy ,4 



Copyright 1898, 
By The University Association. 






^^o. BY FRANKSTRONBPHD. ">S ' 





P VERY visitor to Boston who has the historical spirit, 
i^ walks up j\lilk Street, near the Old South Church, 
to view the tablet which marks the birthplace of Benja- 
min Franklin. The day which saw Benjamin ushered 
into this vale of tears was, according to old style, Janu- 
ary 6th, new style January 17th, 1706. 

Benjamin's father, Josiali Franklin, was blessed with 
more than his share of pledges to fortune, Benjamin hav- 
ing no fewer than sixteen brothers and sisters, some of 
them being of the half blood. Josiah came of good 
English stock of Northamptonshire, where the Frank- 
lins owned a small farm and a smithv which reorularlv 
descended to the eldest son, while the youngest son 
served as apprentice. 

Benjamin was the youngest son of the youngest son 
for many generations back. Not far away lived the an- 
cestors of another great x^merican who was associated 
with Franklin in the most momentous struggle that has 
engaged the attention of the American continent — George 
Washington. But there was a great difference in the 
station of the two families; the Washingtons were of 



6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

gentle blood, while the Franklins were brawny smiths 
or farmers. Even then the Franklins had the sturdy 
independence of which men are made. They turned 
early to the Protestant faith, or perhaps were descended 
from the French Protestants, and in Bloody Mary's time 
they persisted in the reading of the Bible, concealing it 
by fastening the book under the top of a joint stool. 
Thus while one of the children watched, the father of 
the household turned over the stool and read the precious 
words which peril only sanctified. 

In the time of Charles 11, Josiah Franklin and Benja- 
min, his favorite brother, broke with the rest of the fam- 
ily by abandoning the Church of England and espous- 
ing the cause of the Dissenters. On this account Josiah 
left England about the year 1685 and removed to Boston. 

Benjamin also came of good stocl^ on his mother's 
side. Her name was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter 
Folger who settled in Watertown in 1635. He was 
noted for his missionary labors among the Indians, 'and 
showed his liberal spirit and opposition to persecution by 
becoming a Baptist minister. 

Franklin's biographers seem agreed that he derived 
from his mother his physical traits, while it seems cer- 
tain that he derived from his maternal grandfather his 
hatred of bigotry and helpful nature. The most distin- 
guishing quality of mind that Benjamin possessed — 
clear, sound common sense -he got from his father, 
whom he speaks of as having this quality in a marked 
degree. Josiah was handsome, cheerful and accom- 
plished. He was musical and sang to his family of an 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 7 

evening, accompanying- himself on his violin. Benja- 
min held these evenings as happy spots in his mem- 
ory, and he often referred to them when an old 
man. The home life, therefore, was affectionate and in- 
spiring. 

Benjamin had been named after Josiah's favorite 
brother, who still remained in England. The elder was 
of a literary tnrn, and this fact probably had a very 
important bearing on his nephew, for the uncle after- 
ward lived in the same house for years. He left two 
quarto volumes of his poetry, some of it written for his 
nephew whom he very early (at seven years) encouraged 
to court the muses. In 1713 he sent the boy lines as 
follows : 

" 'Tis time for me to throw aside my pen, 

When hanging sleeves read, write and rhyme like men. 

This forward spring foretells a plenteous crop; 

For if the bud bear grain, what will the top?" 

Sparks says: "These lines are more prophetic, per- 
haps, than the writer imagined." 

Benjamin's father intended him for a preacher, and he 
was sent to the Boston Grammar School. But the 
boy hankered after the life of a sailor. Josiah had al- 
ready lost one son by his running away to sea, and, fearful 
of losing another, as a sort of compromise Benjamin was 
set at "dipping wicks and pouring grease," for his father 
vv-as a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler. This was when 
the boy had arrived at the mature age of ten years. 

He was not very industrious, on account of which his 
father quoted to him Solomon's proverb about the dili- 



8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

gent man standing before Kings. He spent a good deal 
of time in swimming and invented swimming devices, 
and again, by flying a kite made it draw him across the 
pond of water on his back. 

He remained with his father for three years, with 
some diversion at intervals by reading the few books 
which he procured by much ingenuity and self-sacrifice. 
He loved best Bunyan's immortal Allegory, ^ He pur- 
chased Burton's Historical Collections and Cotton Math- 
er's "Essays to .do Good," and no doubt the "Boston 
Newsletter," America's only newspaper, then about as 
large as a sheet of modern foolscap. 

This tendency seemed to give the father a dim notion 
that the boy was worthy of something better than the 
greasy trade in which he was employed. Therefore he 
was apprenticed when thirteen years old to his older 
brother James, who was a printer. This was not done, 
however, until the boy had been taken to the shops oi 
joiners, bricklayers, turners, etc., that he might get an 
idea of what trade he would like best, so anxious was 
the father to keep the boy from the sea. 

Benjamin soon learned the printing trade and became 
a valuable hand. Not only that, but he got access to 
better books and often sat up most of the night to read, 
when he had borrowed a book or surreptitiously taken it 
for a night's reading. 

He tried his hand at poetry, for it was the time of 
street ballads on the exploits of pirates, on shipwreck? 
and murders. This production was printed by his broth 
er and sold. But he was saved from becoming a poet 



' BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 9 

to which his vanity now led him, by his father, who 
told him that verse makers w^ere generally beggars. 

He then turned to putting down his thoughts in prose, 
and l)y the aid of his father and an odd volume of the 
"Spectator," succeeded in correcting his faults of com- 
position. Lacking a vocabulary, he took parts of the 
"vSpcctator" and making a mere sketch of them, after- 
ward tried to put them into good English. By compar- 
ing these efforts with the original, he made rapid prog- 
ress. 

He early avoided attendance on public worship and 
while a mere boy, from reading Collins, Shaftesbury and 
Bolingbroke, became very unorthodox. Three years af- 
ter he was apprenticed he obtained a book on vegetable 
diet, and, with some liking for the perverse, became a 
vegetarian. In this way he saved part of the expense of 
his board, and got a little money for books. 

From reading Xenophon's "Memorable Things of 
Socrates," he took up the Socratic method of disputa- 
tion which helped to ciystalize his style; and at the 
same time he learned from Socrates that courteous man- 
ner wdiich is so valuable to a disputant. 

James Franklin published the "New England Cour- 
ant," one of the earliest newspapers in America, and 
Benjamin, unbeknown to his brother, wrote occasional 
pieces for it which he stuck under the door of the shop. 
These were accepted and praised without their author 
being suspected, and this led Benjamin to believe in his 
own power to influence men by his pen. But he re- 
ceived from his brother more blows than was altogether 



lo BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

agreeable, and he therefore sought an occasion of escap- 
ing his apprenticeship. He found it when his brother 
was arrested for some political article in his paper which 
was displeasing to the Assembly, and forbidden to longer 
publish the "Courant." 

As a subterfuge the paper was published in the name 
of Benjamin Franklin, and the first indentures of ap- 
prenticeship cancelled and new ones secretly given. 
Under the new^ management the paper flourished as nev- 
er before. Taking advantage of the opportunity, and 
under strong feeling because of his brother's illtreat- 
ment, he left, but was prevented by James from getting 
work at his trade in Boston. 

He secretly took ship for New York, where he ar- 
rived in October, 1723. He was then seventeen years 
old, with a tolerably good opinion of himself, and with 
a reputation in Boston of being a dangerous youth, both 
politically and religiously. 

On his way to New York the ship stopped off Block 
Island to fish for cod, and Benjamin was tempted by the 
sweet savor of fried cod to renounce his vegetarian prin- 
ciples. 

Finding no work in New York he started for Phila- 
delphia, and after a voyage of thirty hours reached 
Perth Amboy wet, hungry, and feverish. He walked 
from Perth Amboy across New Jersey to Burlington, 
cutting such a miserable figure as to be suspected of be- 
ing a runaw^ay servant. 

From Burlington he succeeded in getting a boat for 
Philadelphia. He reached the city on a Sunday tired 



BENJAMIN FRAXKLIX. ii 

and very hungry, with only a Dutch dollar and a shil- 
ling in copper in his pocket. The shilling he gave for 
his passage on the boat. He was worn with fatigue and 
loss of sleep; his clothes were soiled and his pockets 
stuffed .with shirts and stockings. He purchased three 
rolls of bread, taking one under each arm while he ate 



IT ' ''■ " ' ^ ''^-i^' 111 

,1 








Franklin's Arrival in Philadelphia. From Holley's 'Life of Franklin," 1848. 

from the other in his hand. Thus he walked up the 
street before the home of his future wife, who stood in 
the doorway and surveyed the awkward, ridiculous ap- 
pearance of her future husband. Such was the manner 
of Franklin's beginning in Philadelphia. 

There were only two printers in Philadelphia in that 
day, and both were poorly qualified for their trade. 
Franklin, therefore, found little difficulty in getting 



12 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

work with one of them, Keimer by name, w^ho probably 
was one of the Protestants of the Cevennes so much per- 
secuted by Louis XIV. 

Franklin's ability and originality soon made him 
prominent and brought him into contact with Sir Wm. 
Keith, governor of the Province. This acquaintance 
came near ending disastrously for the young man, or 
rather, boy, and he then first had some experience with 
the shifty practices of the well meaning but unscrupu- 
lous politician. 

Keith tried to get Franklin to set up in business in 
Philadelphia, and sent him to Boston with a letter to his 
father urging the elder Franklin's assistance for his son. 
Benjamin had been away seven months, and though 
well received by his family, except by his brother, he 
did not succeed in his mission. The shrewd Josiah 
seems to have suspected what sort of person Sir William 
was, and the young man had to return with good will 
and advice alone, but no cash. 

The ready-tongued governor, in a fit of generosity 
which he did not live up to, declared that as long as 
Benjamin's father refused, he would set the young man 
up himself. 

He requested Franklin to make an inventory of the 
things needed in a printer's shop and finally urged him 
to go to England for the purpose of purchasing the stock 
at the governor's expense. 

The promised letters of introduction and credit were 
not forthcoming before the ship sailed from Philadelphia, 
but being assured by Sir William that they would be 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 13 

sent aboard at Newcastle, Franklin embarked. At New- 
castle the snpposed packet was sent aboard but on being 
opened later no letters were found for Benjamin Frank- 
lin. It was an indecently cruel trick to thus impose 
''so grossly on a poor ignorant boy" and send him to a 
foreign country on a useless mission. But after all the 
experience and knowledge thus gained, were of value. 

While in London he worked at his trade and led a 
somewhat dissipated life. His infidelity came out in a 
pamphlet which brought him some favor with the free- 
thinkers of England 
whose favor and socie- 
ty never did anybody 
any good. Afterward 
he destroyed with his 
own hands nearly all 
the 100 copies issued. 

He was also urged by 
Sir William Wyndham, 
ex-Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, to open a 
swimming school in 
London. This w::. a 
strong temptation for 
he was promised good 
patronage, but a desire to see Philadelphia once more and 
the kind advice of a Mr. Denliam kd Franklin to refuse. 

This Mr. Denham offered him a position as confiden- 
tial clerk in his mercantile business to be opened in 
Philadelphia, and Franklin accepted. They returned to 




Press used liy Franklin while working at his 

trade in London in 1725-6. Now in the 

National Museum, Washington, D. C. 



14 BENJAMhN ffiANKLIN. 

America together after Franklin had been absent eigh- 
teen months, reaching Philadelphia October nth, 1726. 
During the voyage to America, Franklin kept a diary 
and recorded several interesting scientific observations. 
Tears filled his eyes as he approached his native land 
and he seems to have been heartily glad to see America 
once more. The business arrangement with Mr. Denham 
was soon broken up by the severe illness of both. Mr. 
Denham died but Franklin's life was spared. He pro- 
fessed himself "rather disappointed" when he found he 
was not going to die. But Benjamin had a very prac- 
tical turn of mind, and had a sufficient sense of his own 
importance to occupy himself afterward with his famois 
epitaph which is too renowned to omit: 

The Body 
of 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
(Like the cover of an Old Book, 
Its Contents Torn Out, 
And Stript of Its Lettering and Gilding,) 
Lies Here, Food for worms. 
Yet the work Itself Shall not Be Lost, 
For It will, as He Believed, Appear Once More, 
In a New 
And More Beautiful Edition, 
Corrected and Amended 
By 
The Author. 
But Franklin got well of his pleurisy and returned to 
his old trade, this time with his old employer, Keimer. 
He was the life of the shop; cast type, made the ink, en- 
graved, and bound the books. He soon left Keimer be- 
cause of a quarrel and made a secret agreement with one 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 15 

of Keimer's workmen, ^Meredith, to go into partnership 
as soon as they could get the tools of the trade from 
London. 

Keimer having a chance to print paper money for 
New Jersey, persuaded P'ranklin to return for a season 
because he was the only one who could engrave, cast 
type, etc. He contrived for this job the first copper 
plate press in America. What was more important, he 
had a chance to visit Burlington and become acquainted 
with the influential men wdiose friendship proved after- 
ward of great advantage. 

He soon set up his business with Meredith, and after 
a few months bought from the shiftless Keimer a news- 
paper recently started and called "The Universal In- 
structor in all Arts and Sciences, and Pennsylvania Ga- 
zette. " This long name being too heavy a burden for 
a small paper with ninety subscribers to carry, the first 
clause was chopped off, and being relieved of part of its 
burden the "Pennsylvania Gazette" began to prosper 
greatly. It soon became very influential, Franklin's first 
number being number forty issued October 2d, 1729. 

It is interesting to remember that in this paper Frank- 
lin originated the modern system of business advertising 
that has grown to such an enormous extent. 

The other printer in the town, Bradford by name, was 
also postmaster and refused to allow his postriders to 
carry Franklin's paper because he published one him- 
self This constituted no difficulty to Franklin w^hose 
code of ethics w^as of a somewhat elastic sort. He simp- 
ly bribed the postriders with so liberal sums that his pa- 



i6 BENJAMIN FkaNKLIN. 

per gained a wide circulation and soon became extreme- 
ly profitable. It was well printed, and, especially, arti- 
cles of Franklin's which discussed the trouble between 
the Governor and Assembly of Massachusetts and fore- 
shadowed the coming trouble of forty odd years later, 
brought much favor to Franklin and many subscribers 
to his paper. In the year 1730 the partnership with Mere- 
dith was dissolved. Even before this Franklin had formed 
his famous debating society called the Junto,or The Leath- 
ern Apron Club. The idea seems to have been borrowed 
from Cotton Mather's Benefit Societies. The memb'ers 
entered upon the discussion of topics which afterward 
became leading questions in colonial affairs. The Club 
soon became of very great influence and formed sub- 
ordinate clubs. So began the American system of de- 
bating societies. 

One of the questions taken up was that of paper mon- 
ey which was now coming to the front in the Province. 
Franklin favored the measure in his paper and to such 
good purpose that it carried, and he got the job of print- 
ing the money which brought him a handsome sum. 

He worked very hard at this time and was not above 
making some show of his industry and frugality. He 
was now induced by friends, who were would-be match- 
makers, to contemplate marriage but his mercenary de- 
mand of enough dowry to pay off the debt of his print- 
ing house broke off the match. 

He then turned to Miss Reade to whom he had prom- 
ised himself before he went to London and whom he had 
conveniently forgotten. She in the meantime had mar- 




Mrs. Benjamin Franklin. 



i8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

ried a worthless fellow who deserted her. The affection 
between her and Franklin reviving, they were married 
September ist, 1730. 

It has seemed wise to give some space to Franklin's 
early life because of its very great interest and its im- 
portant bearing on his subsequent career. It was, how- 
ever, the least satisfactory and least to be respected part 
of his life. He had pretty thoroughly sown his wild 
oats and had been guilty of many indiscretions that, but 
for his correct and helpful after life and his exceeding 
great services to his country, would leave a blot on his 
reputation. In fact, if Benjamin Franklin had not at 
the bottom been of sound character and high aims, he 
would never have recovered from his early sins and mis- 
takes; but instead we should read of another disastrous 
failure in life. 

We have come to the turning point in his career. 
With his marriage a new period in his life begins; dan- 
gerous tendencies in his character disappear and the no- 
bler elements more strongly appear. He had always 
been industrious; now he is frugal and steady. . 

His direct pungent style of writing he puts to good 
use and the writing of infidel essays is given over. His 
full stock of information which makes him a self-educa- 
ted man; his breadth of mind and charming originality, 
and most of all his sound judgment and wonderful com- 
mon sense, are put to the uses that help his fellow men, 
not only of his own city and colony, but of the world. 
His thriftiness brings financial success; his happy mar- 
riage brings tranquility of life and correctness of living. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 19 

He becomes influential and public-spirited, and what 
Benjamin Franklin undertakes is pretty sure to be suc- 
cessful. 

Franklin is very remarkable for the number of schemes 
for social and public improvement which he began when 
they would be of vast influence on the undeveloped col- 
onies. It would be hard to parallel his case in history. 
The experience he gained thus was of great value to 
himself, also, for he learned in such matters to put him- 
self in the background. He says: 

"I therefore put myself as much as I could out of 
sieht, and stated it as a scheme of a number of friends, 
who had requested me to go about and propose it." 

This method brought success and is important because 
it was the one he uniformly followed in after life. His 
first enterprise of this character was the establishment of 
a library. He induced the members of the Junto to 
brino- their few books to their club room for the common 
benefit, members being allowed to borrow books to read 
at home. This proved of service and led him to think 
of affording the benefit of reading to the public by means 
of a public subscription library. With difficulty he got 
fifty persons to subscribe forty shillings each and ten 
shillings a year. The books were imported and the li- 
brary was open one day in the week to subscribers for 
borrowing on their promissory notes to pay double the 
value, if the book was not duly returned. This method 
was soon imitated by other towns and provinces and led 
to consequences of great moment. 

^'They made," he tells us, '^the common tradesman 



20 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other 
conntries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree 
to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies 
in defense of their privileges." The library was found- 
ed in 1 731 and incorporated in 1742. 

He now began to acquire some wealth through his 
own industry and frugality and that of his wife who 
cheeifully folded and stitched pamphlets, tended shop 
and purchased old linen rags. He considered himself 
lucky in having such a wife and quoted the old English 
proverb: 

"He that would thrive, must first ask his wife." 

They lived very plainly, his breakfast being bread and 
milk with no tea, eaten out of a "two-penny earthen 
porringer with a pewter spoon." 

He seemed to recover somewhat from his very strong 
tendency toward free-thinking and this new inclination 
grew stronger as the years went by. His experience 
with himself and others had convinced him that there 
was something wrong with his early views." He even 
wrote a pamphlet in refutation of his London screed. 

The preaching of the day, which he always helped to 
support with his money, lacking the inculcating or en- 
forcing of moral principles, he formed in 1728 a Liturgy 
for his own private use and went no more to public wor- 
ship. But he strongly advised his daughter Sarah to 
never give up Divine Worship. 

He now conceived the project of arriving at moral per- 
fection. This illustrates well Franklin's moral attitude. 
He found the task, however, more difficult than he had 



BEXJAMIX FRAXKLIX. 21 

imamned. Amono: the virtues in which he meant to at- 
tain perfection were Temperance, Order, Frugality, Sin- 
cerity, Justice; and, on being told by a candid Quaker 
friend that he was proud and too confident in his own 
opinion, and being convinced of the truth of the asser- 
tion, he added to the list Humility. He naively says 
that he had a good deal of success with regard to the 
appearance of humility. 

In 1732, he first published his "Almanac" under the 
name of Richard Saunders, and it was continued by him 
as Poor Richard's Almanac for twenty-five years. It 
was the comic almanac of the time and proved a great 
success, circulating to the extent of ten thousand copies 
per year. 

It had enormous influence so that, as one of his biog- 
raphers tells us, " 'Poor Richard' became a nom dc plume 
as renowned as any in English literature." It was one of 
the most influential publications in the w^orld, being re- 
printed in Great Britain, and translated into French and 
distributed among the poor. -Franklin thought that by 
discouraging useless expense it helped toward the grow- 
ing pleiity of money in Pennsylvania. 

In 1733 he began the study of languages, and soon 
had some mastery of French. He then acquired a read- 
ing knowledge of Italian, Spanish and Latin, and 
strongly advocated this order in learning languages. 

He loved the game of chess, and he persuaded the 
friend with whom he played to agree that the one who 
was beaten should learn the parts of some Italian verb, 
or do a portion of Italian into English before the next 




a 

a 
< 



o 

li 

o 2 
S 

> 



BENJAMIX FRANKLLX. 23 

game. Thus, Parton says, "they beat one another into 
the acquisition of the Italian language." 

We find him all throuijh his life seeking: diversion 
through music, also, which taste he inherited from his 
fa'ther; and he is said to have played on the harp, violin, 
violincello and guitar. 

His political promotion began with his being elected 
Clerk of the General Assembly in 1736, and was fol- 
lowed the next year by his being appointed by Colonel 
Spottiswood, the postmaster-general, his deputy in Phil- 
adelphia. Franklin found this of great advantage, for 
it increased the circulation of his newspaper and the in- 
come from its advertisements. 

He started the agitation wdiich led to a regular police 
system instead of the old city watch,, and December 7th, 
1736, formed the Union Fire Company, the first of its 
kind in America. 

When AVhitefield visited the colonies in 1739, he 
found Franklin one of his earnest supporters. He tells 
in his inimitable autobiography a story of how he was 
carried away by Wliitefield's eloquence and emptied his 
pockets, copper, silver and gold, into the collection box 
when he had made up his mind to give nothing. 

A little before this he invented the Franklin stove or 
Pennsylvania fireplace which was the beginning of the 
American stove system. Franklin refused to take out a 
patent on it for worthy reasons which had no effect on a 
thrifty iron-monger of London who made some disadvan- 
tageous changes and at once secured a patent. 

In 1743 he proposed to establish an academy but 



24 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

failed; but the next year succeeded in founding the Amer- 
ican Philosophical Society. These various projects were 
either established through the Junto or received valuable 
aid from that unique organization. 

A few years later he again took up the matter of an 
Academy and the result was in time the University of 
Pennsylvania. 

His mind was continually running on scientific mat- 
ters. He loved to observe nature. He was a careful ob- 
server of ants and made interesting discoveries about 
them and, in 1743, he made the discovery that the north- 
east storms move backward, that is from southwest to 
northeast. 

As the war between Spain and England came on in 
1739, he took up the matter of the unprotected frontier 
of Pennsylvania and wrote a pamphlet entitled "Plain 
Truth," setting out in strong colors the defenceless con- 
dition of the colony and the necessity of union. This 
pamphlet was the means of a voluntary association for 
defence. 

Franklin and others were sent to Governor Clinton of 
New York for cannon. Clinton at first absolutely re- 
fused to lend any, but at night when his council met and 
they had drunk a few glasses of Madeira wine, the Gov- 
ernor promised six; after a few more glasses ten, and 
when further intoxicated, he advanced the number to 
eio^hteen, Franklin took his turn as a common soldier 
in the battery. This visit to New York gave him some 
acquaintance with men of prominence. 

Franklin proposed a lottery to defray the expenses of 




L.L-urL;c Cliiiluii. Cuiunidl Governor of New York. 



26 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

building the battery. He now discovered that in defen- 
sive warfare the Quakers would offer no obstacle, for 
when New England solicited a grant of powder from 
Pennsylvania, the Quakers voted ^3,000 for the pur- 
chase of bread, flour wheat, or other "grain," which 
latter meant gunpowder. 

Franklin in 1748, took into partnership David Hall 
who had been a fellow w^orkman in London, in order 
that he might have more leisure. He then turned his 
attention toward scientific investigations, especially in 
electricity. 

But the people needed his services and he had to serve 
as justice of the peace, in the Common Council, and as 
their representative in the Assembly, which latter posi- 
tion pleased him especially. He was also elected by the 
House as one of the Commissioners for treating with the 
Indians at Carlisle. The Commissioners with difficulty 
persuaded the Indians to keep sober during the time of 
the treaty by promising plenty of rum afterward, which 
promise was kept. 

In 1 751, he assisted Dr. Bond, whose skillful flattery 
won him over, to found a hospital in Philadelphia. He 
got a conditional grant from the Assembly of 1 10,000 for 
the purpose. 

He also interested himself in schemes for street clean- 
ing, paving and lighting, which afterward became organ- 
ized efforts. He improved on the London lamps by 
making them of four flat panes with openings for air be- 
low, which the smoky London lamps did not have. 

Tradition tells us also the story of the introduction of 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 27 

plaster as a fertilizer; how Franklin in a field by tlie high- 
road wrote in large letters with plaster: — "This Has 
Been Plastered;" and how the brilliant green of the in- 
creased growth made the words very plain to the aston- 
ished farmers. 

Having acted for some years as comptroller nnder the 
postmaster-general of America, he was, npon the death 
of that oihcer, appointed cgnjointly with ]\Ir. William 
Hnnter to succeed him. This was in the year 1753 and 
marks the time when Franklin began to have a part in 
the more important matters of the colonies as a whole. 
The American office had never paid the British govern- 
ment any revenne, but before Franklin got through with 
its management it j^aid three times as much net revenue 
as the. Ireland ofhce. After he was displaced "by a freak 
of the minister" it again ceased to pay. His connection 
with the post office was a matter of importance. 

He was now a rising man in colonial affairs. It led to 
his travelling in New England and gave him an acquain- 
tance there which had some bearing on after events. 
Harvard then conferred upon him the degree of ]\Iaster 
of i\rts. Yale had already done so, the honor in both 
cases being in recognition of his discoveries in electricity. 

As the French and Indian war came on, the Lords of 
Trade (1753) directed the governors of various provinces 
to have commissioners sent by the assemblies to treat 
with the Six Nations and to form a union for general de- 
fence. The place of meeting w^as to be Albany on ac- 
count of its convenience and nearness to the Six Na- 
tions. 



28 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin was appointed one of the commissioners for 
Pennsylvania and the Congress met in June, 1754. On 
the way to Albany Franklin drew up a plan of union 
which he says in his autobiography was for all the col- 
onies. This plan, which was his so-called ''Short Hints," 
he showed to his friends in New York, in whose judg- 
ment he had confidence, i. c, James Alexander and Cad- 
wallader 'Colden. The "Short Hints," however, referred 
at first, at least, to a union of northern colonies only. 

Alexander and Colden offered some criticisms and sug- 
gestions which Franklin made some slight use of. 

At the Convention several plans of union were proposed 
but the Committee appointed to draw up plans, of which 
Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts and Benjamin 
Franklin of Pennsylvania were members, chose Frank- 
lin's and reported it with some modifications and it was 
adopted. There were twenty-five delegates from only 
seven states ; all of which, except Maryland, were north- 
ern states. When the plan of union was submitted to 
the colonies their assemblies rejected it without exception 
because it gave the Crown too much power. 

When submitted to the Fords of Trade and Plantations 
it was rejected because it gave too much power to the 
colonies. It was, however, a very important step in the 
evolution of a national idea and Franklin had his full 
share in it. The real reason why England rejected the 
plan of union was not that it gave the colonies too much 
specific power, but because it formulated a tendency to- 
ward organic union that the home government was 
alarmed at, although its order had led to it. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 29 

Franklin thonght afterward that the adoption of his 
scheme might have made the assistance of the English 
troops in the French and Indian war nnnecessary, pre- 
vented the attempts to tax the colonies for the expense 
of the war, and so prevented the Revolution. But that 
was mere fancy. 

In the winter of 1754-5 he had some conversation with 
Governor Shirley of Massachusetts over the relations of 
the colonies to the mother country. Shirley seemed to 
favor a scheme, to take the place of the one rejected, by 
which the governors of the provinces and their councils 
should meet and order the raising of troops, etc., and 
draw on the imperial treasury for funds which should be 
returned by a tax levied by Parliament on the colonies. 

Franklin took alarm at once and wrote three letters 
in December, 1754, setting out the principle of no taxa- 
tion without representation. These letters were afterward 
published in the London '^Chronicle" in December, 1766. 
Franklin thus laid out before hand the plan of campaign 
according to which the Revolution was fought. He, how- 
ever, injudiciously admitted the right of Parliament to lay 
what he called secondary taxes through the operation of 
the Navigation Acts. Shirley proposed that the colo- 
nies be represented in Parliament, but Franklin thought 
that hardly practicable. 

He was swept into the vortex of the war and gained 
experience of value in the coming struggles for indepen- 
dence. The inevitable struggle between England and 
France for the ownership of North America had begun. 
The contest seemed very unequal when we consider that 



30 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

there were over a million whites in the British Prov- 
inces and only 80,000 French in Canada. 

The ontcome of the contest therefore conld not be in 
doubt, though the concentrated administration of Cana- 
da and the incompetency of the English put off the inev- 
itable. 

Braddock's campaign and defeat cost Franklin dear 
because he was induced to persuade his fellow citizens of 
Pennsylvania to let out their horses and wagons to haul 
supplies and baggage for the army. They first insisted 
on his giving them a bond for the value of their property, 
which he did. The loss through Braddock's defeat was 
about $100,000, which Franklin was bound to pay. Suits 
were instituted and he was only saved from ruin by Shir- 
ley, who appointed a commission to audit and pay the 
claims. Part of the money which he had advanced he 
never received. Against his own judgment he was, dur- 
ing the war, appointed Colonel' of a regiment and seut 
with a small force to build 'forts on the frontier. He did 
his work well. 

About this time he conceived the idea of extending 
the colonies inland over the mountains, thinking that in 
a century the Ohio Valley might become a populous and 
powerful domain; and such it has become even beyond 
his wildest dreams. 

Ever since 1746 Franklin had been engaged in elec- 
trical experiments which culminated in his celebrated 
proof of the identity of lightning with the electric spark. 
The story is one of the most famous in history. 

Standing under an old cow-shed after they had raised 




^^*,fe. ^'-^ 



,jm -*^An;^, 




32 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

their kite in the rain, Franklin and his son had the sat- 
isfaction of drawing from the key at the end of the hemp- 
en kite-string unmistakable sparks. They then filled a 
Leyden jar which they had carried with them, and the 
next ship to Europe took the news of the discovery. 

Having been provided by Mr. P. Collinson, Fellow of 
the Royal Society of London, (whom he had known in 
England), with a glass tube for use in his experiment, he 
soon had his house continually full of "people who came 
to see these new wonders." . 

He wrote several lectures and set up an ingenious 
neighbor as lecturer with machines made after Franklin's 
models and sent him through the colonies and even down 
to the West Indies. He then wrote Collinson several let- 
ters about his experiments, and sent the paper he had 
written for his neighbor on the sameness of lightning 
with electricity to Dr. Mitchell, one of the Royal Society. 
The Royal Society, however, poked fun at Franklin's 
papers. They fell afterward into the hands of Dr. Foth- 
ergill who saw their w^orth and had them printed and 
wrote a preface for the publication. A copy of this came 
into the hands of Count de Buffon, was translated in- 
to French and began to attract very general attention. 
It was afterward translated into Italian, German and Lat- 
in, and Franklin had full revenge upon the pedants who 
derided him. He was chosen a member of the Royal 
Society and presented with the medal of Sir Godfrey Cop- 
ley for the year 1753. 

Franklin incurred the enmity of the proprietaries of 
Pennsylvania by his conduct in the Assembly. He was 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 33 

the leader in the legislature and opposed very warmly the 
exemption of the estate of the proprietaries from taxation. 
He even denounced their motives as mean and unjust in 
demanding exemption. 

The full force of their displeasure, fell of course, upon 
the leader, and we have in 
a sense a beginning of the 
struggle that was to issue in 
a contest, not between a pro- 
prietary and his colony, but 
between a King and his sub- 
jects. The proprietaries ac- 
cused Franklin in turn w^ith 




\x^ 






■/ 



an intention of assuming the 
government of Pennsylvania 

bv force. They even tried to Oold Medal presented to Franklm by 
-^ -^ .the Roval Society of London. 

get him removed from his 

office as post-master general for America but without suc- 
cess. 

The Assembly meantime, were in a chronic state of 
wrangling with the governor, who was torn with conflict- 
ing desires to please the King, the proprietaries and the 
Assembly. Franklin and the governor seem, however, 
to have kept, personally, on good terms. The struggle 
between the Assembly and the proprietaries soon came 
to a head. The proprietaries insisted on a course of act- 
ion which the Assembly construed as inconsistent with 
the privileges of the people and the service of the crown. 
The Assembly therefore determined to send a petition to 
the crown in their behalf and to send Franklin as their 



34 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

agent in support of the petition. After a long delay oc- 
casioned by Lord Loudon's indecision, which Franklin 
graphically and humorously describes, he succeeded in 
getting off, although his baggage had all gone on be- 
fore. It was on this occasion that Loudon was char- 
acterized by one of Franklin's friends as "like St. 
George on the signs, always on horseback^ but never 
rides on.^^ 

Franklin was waiting on Loudon partly to recover the 
balance due him for provisions furnished Braddock's 
army. Although Loudon's paymaster found the accounts 
entirely accurate, Loudon himself refused to pay, coarse- 
ly intimating that Franklin, like other contractors, had 
found a means of recompense by stealing from the pub- 
lic treasury. But after the fiasco at Louisburg^ Loudon 
was recalled, too absurdly incompetent to be of use in 
the New World. 

Franklin was, among other things, attempting to in- 
duce the Crown to resume the Province of Pennsylvania 
as his own. But there seemed to be no good prospect 
of the success of this mission; for about the time that 
Franklin was appointed, the House of Commons passed 
a resolution that the claim of the colonial Assemblies of 
the right to raise and disburse public money on their 
own authority was derogatory to the crown and the rights 
of the English people. 

Franklin was accompanied by his son as secretary. 
They were chased by the French several times, but es- 
caped. On his way to London from Falmouth he 
stopped at Stonehenge and arrived in the British capital 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 35 

July 27th, 1757. He soon had an interview with Lord 
Granville, president of the council, and was alarmed at 
the position then taken by that statesman. Franklin 
was told in substance that the king's instructions to his 
governors were the ^Haw of the laiid^ for the king is the 
legislator of the colonies." Somewhat aghast, he an- 
swered that that was new doctrine to him. No w^onder 
he was alarmed. 

Franklin did not get on well with the proprietaries. 
Each side justified its own acts, and there seemed to be 
little hope of agreement. In fact Franklin had under- 
taken a negotiation with the proprietaries only on the 
advice of Dr. Fothergill, mentioned before. He was now 
told to negotiate with the solicitor of the proprietaries, 
Ferdinand John Paris, who had conducted their disputes 
with the Assembly. But he already had a mortal enmi- 
ty to Franklin because the latter had, when answering 
the papers and messages sent to the Assembly, handled 
him without gloves. For Franklin knew how to wield 
a sharp pen on occasion. 

Paris was such "a proud, angry man," that Franklin 
refused to have anything to do with him. The business 
was then turned over to the Attorney and Solicitor-Gen- 
eral. 

The matter dragged on for more than a year during 
which time Paris got even with his enemy by sending 
for the proprietaries a message to the Assembly com- 
plaining of Franklin's rudeness, and professing willing- 
ness to accommodate matters if "some person of can- 
dour" was sent to treat with them. But the Assembly 



36 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

got back at them by passing an act taxing the proprie- 
tary estate in common with others and omitting to an- 
swer the message at alL 

This whole matter has an extremely humorous flavor. 
In those times they did not preserve the amenities of 
life, nor were our ancestors backward in giving as good 

as was sent. When 
this Act reached Eng- 
land for ratification by 
the king, there was a 
great effort made to de- 
feat it. But as it in- 
volved a vital point of 
the right of the Assem- 
bly to tax the proprie- 
tary estate, Franklin 
fought hard to get it 
ratified. The matter 
of $500,000 of paper 
money was involved in 
this dispute also, and 
the legality of the issu- 
ing of tills of creidit. By making some concessions, the 
act was ratified and the Assembly won. 

Franklin had been kept in this business three years 
or more, for he had found himself very much hampered 
because he was merely the agent of the colonists and so 
a person of no importance. 

He vainly tried to get an interview with William Pitt. 
Yet in other ways he found friends. His scientific dis- 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 37 

coveries had made him a reputation and he was wel- 
comed into the literary circle of such men as Lord Kanies 
and David Hume. 

He traveled extensively, going even to the Low Coun- 
tries; was made Doctor of Laws by the Universities of 
St. Andrews and Oxford. This all led to a strong af- 
fection for England as time went by. One of his friends, 
Mr. Strahan, tried hard to get him to make England his 
permanent home, and offered his son in marriage with 
Franklin's daughter. But Mrs. Franklin did not look 
kindly on an ocean voyage. 

Just at this time Franklin himself was trying to in- 
duce his son William to marry ai2 English girl, Mary 
Stevenson, whom he had taken a strong fancy to. He 
also failed, and so no family bonds united him to the 
mother country. 

It would have been a hard blow to the colonies if all 
these efforts had succeeded in making Franklin a natur- 
alized Englishman. 

The fall of Quebec in 1759 had practically ended the 
French and Indian war. Now arose a question of vital 
importance to the colonies. England, though the con- 
queror, desired peace, and the question was whether to 
retain Guadeloupe or Canada, both of which had been 
conquered. 

The discussion of this question showed with what 
penetration some foresaw the coming splitting off of the 
colonies from the mother country. Many opposed the 
retention of Canada, because Canada in the hands of the 
French would always keep the British colonies depen- 



38 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

dent upon England. Some went so far as to say that 
even if England could get Canada without any sacrifice 
at all she should not desire it. 

Franklin had some important part in this discussion 
and with searching directness showed that the French 
occupation of Canada was a menace to the English pos- 
sessions, and that to leave them there as acheckupon the 
colonies only gave license to Indian barbarities. 

In regard to the probable union of the colonies, he 
was not wholly ingenuous. That was what England 
feared^ and Franklin labored to show that such union 
was impossible except under the most grievous tyranny 
and oppression. 

Attorney-General Pratt did not believe in Franklin's 
boast of colonial loyalty and thought that an attempt at 
their independence was sure to come. Choiseul, the 
French Minister, and Vergennes thought the same. 

Franklin returned home late in 1762. The Assembly 
voted him $15,000 for his expenses, although he had 
spent much more. His friends filled his house in suc- 
cession for many days, coming to congratulate him on 
his return. 

The English government tried its hand at diplomacy, 
also, and in the Autumn of 1762 appointed his son Will- 
iam governor of New Jersey. Lord Bute seems to have 
brought this about. There was considerable intimacy 
between him and Franklin, for Bute was a man fond of 
books and an experimenter in science. Franklin took 
no part in securing the position — a valuable one — for his 
son. This appointment resulted in William becoming a 



, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 39 

royalist and afterward a Tory refugee and led to an ali- 
enation between father and son that was only partially 
healed. 

Franklin was now fifty-six years old. He, however, 
threw himself into bnsiness both public and private, and 
in 1763 traveled 1600 miles looking after the postal bus- 
iness of the colonies. 

He was still a member of the Assembly and soon got 
into trouble with the governor, John Penn, who far from 
measured up to the character of the founder of the Prov- 
ince. Franklin had helped Penn in a marked way dur- 
ing the excitement over the Paxton massacre in which 
excitement Penn, had acted an ignoble part, but on this 
very account Penn disliked Franklin the more. 

The new governor, from whom much was expected 
because of his fair words, soon began the old quarrel 
with the Assembly. The ancient trouble over the tax 
levy on the proprietary's land came up anew. Franklin 
took a prominent part in the hot discussions and the 
people thought of again asking the Crown to assume the 
government of the colony. 

During a recess of the Assembly he wrote a pamphlet 
entitled "Cool Thoughts on the Present Situation of our 
Public Affairs." He discussed the matter ably and 
impartially and was keen enough to see that neither 
the proprietary nor the people were different from others 
of their class, and that the trouble resided in the very 
nature of proprietary government and would last as long 
as it lasted. 

He advised an immediate Royal Government. He 



40 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. • 

drew up a petition to the King in Council showing the 
difficulties and dangers in a proprietary governor, and 
praying his Majesty to resume the government of the 
Province. 

The Speaker of the Assembly not having the courage 
to take so important a step even after the measure was 
carried resigned, and Franklin was chosen in his stead 
and affixed the official signature to the petition. 

These disturbances led to deep animosity on Frank- 
lin's part toward the Pennsand to bitter hatred of Frank- 
lin on the side of the proprietary party in Pennsylvania. 
So strong did Franklin's enemies become that they de- 
feated him for the Assembly in 1764. But the new As- 
sembly promptly took into consideration his appoint- 
ment as Agent to the King in Council in support of the 
petition for the Crown to assume the government. This 
was a bitter pill to Franklin's enemies. They tried to 
defeat the measure and failing in this, passionately urged 
him to refuse the honor. He, however, accepted. 

Franklin was ready to return to England within two 
weeks after his election. Because of lack of money in 
the treasury of the colony, some w^ell-to-do citizens had 
to make up a private fund, part of which Franklin took. 

His enemies made much of his being escorted to his 
ship by mounted citizens whose kindly service he was 
not informed of, and which he could not refuse. 

He reached the Isle of Wight December 9th, 1764, 
and went at once to London to his old lodgings at No. 7 
Craven Street, Strand. His lodgings were with Mrs. 
Stevenson whose daughter Mary he wished for his son 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 41 

William. His affectionate letters to his wife show that he 
thouQ-ht his Slav would be onlv ten or twelve months,but 
it was ten years before he returned again to America. 

The great oncoming struggle was throwing its shadow 
before. While Franklin was sent as the agent of but 
one colony on a matter of trivial importance, his field 
of operation was of necessity widened by the inevitable 
course of events until he became the representative of a 
whole people in regard to the most vital issues that 
could absorb the attention of a continent. 

The matters in his hands grew more and more com- 
plex, and caused him more and more anxiety, and drew 
him on further and further, until in the English eye he 
stood as the personification of rebellion. 

It will be remembered that more than one statesman, 
English or French, had foreseen the destiny of the colo- 
nies, and that the plan of union of 1754 had been re- 
jected by the Lords of Trade because it w^ould produce 
an organized, consolidated power in the colonies. But, 
although the theory of union had failed of recognition, 
the fact of union was evident. The war had done that. 
It "had moved the colonies into a perilous foreground." 

Another thing; the war had shown the colonies their 
own strength as a military power. 

Still again, it had made .clear their immense financial 
resources; and these took on enormous proportions when 
the development of the future was considered. All of 
these things except the last had been dimly apparent to 
Great Britain. The financial resources of the colonies 
came as a positive revelation to the British government 



42 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

What this meant, what use could be made of it, became 
at once entirely clear to a government compelled to in- 
crease its taxation on an already over-burdened people. 

The government over-estimated the advantages of the 
war to the colonies in contradistinction to the benefit to 
Great Britain, and under-estimated the share of the bur- 
den that the colonies had borne in the war. The minis- 
try claimed that the war was undertaken in defence of 
the colonies, when in fact it was to stop encroachments 
upon territory of the British Empire. It was claimed 
further that the war was undertaken because the colo- 
nies could not defend themselves against the French and 
Indians, when they not only could do so but had done so. 

But it was at bottom a dispute that was sure to arise 
between a colony and the mother country under the ex- 
isting colonial system. 

The Stamp Act of 1765 was no change in policy in 
any sense; it was all contained in the navigation and co- 
lonial system of England after 1651. 

This is well shown by the fact that when the ministry 
tried to relieve the overtaxed people of England by 
throwing part of the charges of the war on the colonies 
by direct act of Parliament, it began by revising the 
Navigation Act. In general, ever since 1651 the Navi- 
gation Act had either not been enforced at all or had 
been evaded by smuggling. It was now intended to 
enforce it by reducing the duties which had before 
been so high as to be uncollectible, and thus obtain rev- 
enue. All economists of the time seemed to agree upon 
the wisdom and justice of the navigation acts. Even 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 43 

Adam Smith later could not entirely divorce himself 
from old traditions. Nor could the ministry say that 
money for the king's service had not readily been ob- 
tained. Upon requisition from the Secretary of State 
the assemblies had uniformly appropriated money up to 
the limit of their ability. In the late war they had lost 
30,000 men in the field and spent $15,000,000. 

The new efforts to tax America began in 1763, when 
George Grenville took up Townshend's plan already re- 
ferred to. The colonists had one weak point. They 
had always professed willingness to submit to any indi- 
rect taxation such as w^as laid for the ostensible benefit 
of English trade. So Grenville started in to regulate 
trade along this line. 

His method v>^as to the effect that first, the colonies 
could purchase goods in England alone; second, that 
colonies should not manufacture any articles wdiich they 
could purchase from England; third, that they could not 
trade with one another in articles which would in any 
way directly or indirectly interfere with English trade. 
To this, in 1764, it was intended to add an act wdiich 
would be in the nature of direct taxation. This was the 
Stamp Act. Grenville gave notice of his intention to 

introduce it later. 

Very few in England seemed to think that this would 
meet with any determined opposition. Franklin, how- 
ever, before he set out for England in 176.1. heard of the 
coming step and opposed it in the Assembly. He carried 
with him the protest of the people of Pennsylvania. 
He visited Grenville and protested against the Act, but 



44 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

to no purpose. It became a law March 22d, 1765. 

It seems at first glance strange that Franklin, after 
the Act became a law, apparently looked upon it as some- 
thing that the colonies would have to submit to as best 
they might. 

In one of his letters he speaks, not of opposition, but 
of frugality and industry by which to indemnify the 
people for their loss through the Stamp Act. 

He was much discouraged and despondent although 
his mind did not lose its philosophical way of looking at 
things. He looked upon forcible resistance as not only 
entirely unlikely but impossible. It was only in the 
dim future, when the colonies had greatly increased in 
numbers, that he saw any chance of secession. In fact 
it was much easier to think and talk resistance three 
thousand miles away, than it was in England itself 
where the seemingly overwhelming power of Great Brit- 
ain was everywhere manifest. 

But Grenville intended, as he told Franklin, to make 
the execution of the Act as little inconvenient as possi- 
ble, and so arranged to have for stamp distributors 
American born and not Hnglishmen. Strangely enough 
he succeeded in getting Franklin to nominate a man in 
Philadelphia. 

This mistake almost ruined Franklin who did not at 
all understand the temper of the colonists, and is to be 
explained on the ground that he, over-awed by the man- 
ifest power of the mother country, looked upon any 
thing else but submission as madness. He was de- 
nounced in Pennsylvania as a traitor. All sorts of ru- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 45 

mors were set afloat. He was said to have actually 
planned the Stamp Act, and in some of the coarse cuts of 
the time the devil was represented as making "Ben" his 
agent throughout his dominions. This all hurt him very 
keenly. He was taken by surprise because he was total- 
ly unconscious of wrong. The bitter, frenzied denunci- 
ation of him, the threatened mob violence upon his house 
and his wife and daughter, fairly took his breath away. 
Truly he had raised a tempest of great proportions. 

In this connection we must remember the growing af- 
fcvtion which he had conceived for the mother country. 
Tliat was of influence on his mind. But his patriotism 
was as pure and undying as any man's, and the news 
from America at once w^oke him to the true state of af- 
fairs .\ ad he hastened to take his stand squarely and 
firmly with his countrymen. 

It is interesting to notice this only occasion when 
Franklin failed to accurately judge and reflect the opin- 
ions and w^ishes of the colonies. 

The A:.t had become a feature in English politics and 
the foes of the government now attacked the measure 
although tie belief in it had been well nigh universal. 
But Grenvi.le had things well in hand. He was grow- 
ing daily stionger in Parliament and the cause of the 
colonies seemed lost. But all of a sudden the erratic 
and half insaae George III drove out of office the man 
who was best qualified and most likely to bring about 
the very results desired by the Crown. 

Pitt tried to form a ministry but failed, and the Duke 
of Cumberland who succeeded could get together only a 



46 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

weak and odd patchwork of a cabinet. But in other di- 
rections a strong agency was working against the Stamp 
Act. The Americans had formed their non-importation 
agreements. They imported no more English cloth or 
other goods. They killed "no sheep for food but raised 
wool for homespun cloth. English manufacturers lost a 
profitable market and began to go into bankruptcy. 

Commerce a n d 
shipping were af- 
fected; all branch- 
es of business suf- 
fered. 

John Milton tru- 
ly said in one of 
his prose produc- 
tions, that when 
you touch an Eng- 
lishman in his 
pocket you touch 
his very life. So 
it was here. The 
Stamp Act now touched the Englishman personally, in 
his home, and although he cared nothing for the colon- 
ists, yet he became an enemy of the Stamp Act and the 
ministry. 

To add to the discomfiture of the government, the 
Duke of Cumberland died. In January, 1766, Pitt took 
up the cudgel for the colonies and denied Grenville's as- 
sertion that taxation is a part of that, sovereign power 
which England had over America. He also denounced 




Franklin in 1766. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 47 

the fiction that the colonies were virtually represented in 
Parliament, as of the :\Ianor of East Greenwich, as "the 
most contemptible that ever entered into the head of 
man." Thus the movement began for the repeal of the 
Act. Parliament, however, took its stand on its rights 
first and passed a resolution that the King in Parliament 
had full power to bind the colonies in all cases. This 
was a sop to the King to get him to sign the repeal. 

While Parliament was considering the repeal, Frank- 
lin was called as a witness before the bar of the House 
of Commons in committee of the whole. This examina- 
tion "perhaps displayed his ability to better advantage 
than any other single act in his life." Misstatements 
were pithy, searching, courageous, moderate, able and 
in good temper. 

He made it clear that the colonies would never submit 
to the Stamp Act or any other like act, and that if re- 
quired they would produce their own necessaries. He 
referred to himself later as willing to retire to the forests 
of America and support himself by the labor of the 
chase rather than submit to wrong. 

During this examination he brought out very clearly 
that the colonies had their own parliaments, i. ^., their 
assemblies, and that the King was their sovereign as he 
was of the people and Parliament of England. 

"We are," he said, "free subjects of the King; and 
fellow subjects of one part of his dominions are not sov- 
ereigns over fellow subjects in any other part." 

Another thing that he brought out; that he was es- 
pecially instructed to say that the assemblies would be 



48 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

glad to vote for the King's service all they could afford 
when called upon in the constitutional fashion. He was 
very careful, too, to show how the feeling in America 
had changed since 1763. His answers astonished Eng- 
land and thrilled America. 

Yet, strange to say, Franklin had a personal regard 
for King George, and a remarkable and unfounded faith 
in his purposes toward America. He kept trying to in- 
fluence America in favor of the King while denouncing 
Parliament. His old affection for England led him to 
look kindly upon the British people. It was Parliament 
that he denounced. It was Parliament that was up- 
setting the British Empire. This was an illogical posi- 
tion, but one easily explained from Franklin's previous 
history. 

He soon saw his mistake, and that King George HI 
was behind the movement to subject the colonies, and 
his former liking turned to deep personal hatred. 
Friends of the colonies and Parliament tried to avoid 
serious trouble by advocating representation of the col- 
onies in Parliament. Franklin, of course, did not oppose 
such a movement which in theory was all right, but he 
was shrewd enough to see that it would never work in 
practice. For the colonies which had very much de- 
sired this once were indifferent now, and soon would take 
the stand of absolutely declining any such union. Yet 
as advantageous as it would be to England, that nation 
was too proud to seek union with the despised colonies. 

He also brought out clearly his ideas as to internal and 
external taxation and how the first could not be evaded 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 49 

and was unjust if forced upon a people by others than 
their own representatives. He felt himself bound to say 
that a duty on the importation of goods was just because 
it went to maintain a fleet and protect commerce. 

He showed also how willing the colonies were to bear 
their share of public burdens and how it would take 
twenty years to recover from the burden of debt on ac- 
count of the old French war. 

He pointed to their actions during the late war as 
conclusive proof. Not only that, but he stated that in 
the case of an European war, the colonies would help 
England to the best of their ability. 

Early in 1766 Parliament, under heavy pressure, 
passed the repeal of the Stamp Act and on March i8th 
the King was induced to sign it. 

It was a day of rejoicing not only to English mer- 
chants and manufacturers but to all the colonies as well. 
They seemed to forget that Parliament had not given 
up the right to lay such taxes, but had passed with the 
repeal an act declaring in vigorous terms such authority. 

Franklin of course was now a great man in the eyes 
of the people of Philadelphia who thought the repeal 
was due to his efforts. They forgot their wrath which 
so lately burned against their agent for his early mistake 
as to their temper toward the Stamp Act. 

In all his earnest endeavors to protect the colonies, he 
could not help perpetrating his jokes at the expense of 
the impenetrable British egotism and ignorance of Amer- 
ica. 

Many absurd stories were afloat as to America which 



50 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

were easily swallowed by the Britons. One was that 
American sheep had almost no wool. He answered this 
by the statement that the very tails of" the American 
sheep were so laden with wool that they had to have a 
little wagon on four wheels to support it. Such extrav- 
agances they received with open-mouthed amazement. 

He turned the tables on them by writing, secretly, an 
article for the newspapers to the effect that the King of 
Prussia claimed England as his province, and asserted 
the right of taxation there, using the same arguments as 
the English used in regard to the colonies. 

Yet he could arouse no interest in American affairs. 
People were densely ignorant and wished to remain so. 
Nothing could arouse- them to learn the facts about the 
colonies. In P'rance it was very different. France, 
through her consulate, kept up communication with 
Frauklin. His papers were translated into French, and 
all information in regard to America was eagerly sought. 

Franklin had long desired to return home, and was 
preparing to do so when news came of his appointment 
by Georgia and New Jersey as their colonial agent. He 
seems to have owed his appointment by Georgia to 
Whitefield, who still had great influence there, and 
whose warm regard for Franklin never ceased. 

On the other hand, he was appointed to the same office 
by Massachusetts only after a bitter fight on him by 
Samuel Adams, who did not seem to appreciate Frank- 
lin. 

Arthur Lee, of Virginia, the candidate of Adams, was 
elected substitute in case of Franklin's absence from 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 51 

London. ^Meanwhile the reaction after the repeal was 
in fnll force, and the English newspapers were full of 
attacks on the colonies, especially after their vigorous 
protest against 
the new taxes 
on tea, paint, 
etc., which Eng- 
1 a n d thought 
so innocent. 

All these 
things c o m - 
bined to keep 
Franklin in 
England for 
nearly ten years. 
He still held 
his position as 
postmaster-gen- 
eral in the col- 
onies, though he 
felt his tenure 
of office to be 
b y sufferance. 
His enemies 
made use of his continuance in office for the basis of slan- 
derous rumors that he was being thus bribed by the Brit- 
ish government; that he was to be made secretary in re- 
turn for his changing his views on colonial questions. 
In fact, he was often approached through offers of office. 
But these rumors were partly, at any rate, the work of a 




Statue of Franklin, in front of City Hall, Boston. 



52 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

traitorous egotist — Arthur Lee. It must be borne in 
mind that the repeal of the Stamp Act was not through 
any liking for the colonies, nor because the Parliament 
or the p^eople as a whole desired it. It was the disturb- 
ance of commerce that did it. 

England nlerely admitted that she had erred in the 
method of asserting her rights, but not in regard to the 
rights themselves. It was a humiliating thing, indeed, 
that the greatest nation in Europe should be obliged to 
back down in its first attempt to deal with its colonies 
in the matter of taxation. The only saving thing about 
it was the declaration that Parliament could tax if it 
wanted to. 

France, we may be sure, enjoyed the episode hugely, 
and looked forward with delight to the time when the 
colonies should break away entirely. It would be a 
sweet revenge, in one sense, for the loss of Canada, 

The colonies, like a parcel of children, as soon as the 
Act was repealed, seemed to consider the whole incident 
closed for good. Various colonies voted statues for the 
King and Pitt, and portraits of Camden, Barre and Con- 
way. In their minds England would never again en- 
danger by her acts the good will of the colonies toward 
the mother country. 

Franklin set himself to calming the colonies on the 
one hand and educating the English on the other, so 
that he soon found himself suspected by both — by the 
colonies as too much of an Englishman; by England as 
too much of an American. 

The Rockingham ministry was too weak to stand the 



BEN7AMIX FRAXKLIX. 53 

shock of the repeal, and went to pieces. Pitt formed a 
new one with Shelburne,- Camden and Conway, all of 
wdiom were favorable to America. Bnt he was obliged 
to take in Townshend as chancellor of the exchequer. 
Townshend was the arch-enemy of the colonies, the 
originator of the offensive scheme of colonial taxation, 
the reckless scoffer at colonial rights, "the incurable," 
as Pitt called him. 

While Shelburne had charge of the administration of 
colonial affairs, and acted in a perfectly just and satisfac- 
tory manner in all things coming within his functions, 
Townshend had the management of taxation. He had 
the initiative, while Shelburne administered. Not only 
that, he had the backing of Kjng George III, who urged 
him on in his warfare against the colonies. 

Unfortunately for America, Pitt had committed the 
mistake of ceasing to be a commoner and had become 
the Earl of Chatham, and while he rose in dignity he 
fell in power. He soon became a wreck, and shut him- 
self up from all participation in public^business. This 
left Townshend in full sway. 

Taking advantage of the distinction drawn by Frank- 
lin, Pitt and the colonies, between a direct tax and com- 
mercial imposts, which latter were admitted to be right, 
Townshend brought forward a new scheme of taxation. 
It embodied the method of indirect taxation by means of 
imposts, and so sati.sfactory to the colonies was it sup- 
posed to be that it passed Parliament without opposi- 
tion of consequence. 

Townshend also tried to punish New York for not 



54 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

obeying the act as to quartering British soldiers in the 
colony. This created bad blood. These acts showed 
clearly the determination of Parliament to raise revenue 
from America. 

Townshend's bill had provided imposts on tea, paint, 
paper, glass and lead. It at once became apparent to 
John Dickinson of Pennsylvania that the stand of the 
colonies in favor of submitting to imposts was fraught 
with grave danger. He therefore wrote the "Letters of 
a Farmer," to urge the colonies to recede from their po- 
sition, and to maintain that any tax of whatever kind 
for the purpose- of raising a revenue was a violation of 
their rights as British subjects. 

Under the pressure of these and similar papers and of 
the trend of events, the colonies advanced to this posi- 
tion which they maintained to the end of the Revolu- 
tionary war. 

When Townshend's influence w^as most in the ascen- 
dant, he died September, 1767. He was succeeded by 
Lord North, who was in name the head of the ministry 
while the King himself was the real controller of the 
destinies of Britain. 

Shelburne was also superceded by an Irish peer, the 
Earl of Hillsborough. At first Franklin was inclined to 
like the new secretary for the colonies, but he was soon 
undeceived. 

The Earl tried to insist that Franklin had no regular 
commission as an agent because it was not a bill signed 
by the governor, but simply a vote of the Assembly. 
In this attempt to bluff Franklin he condescended to use 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 55 

falsehood, but in this he was detected by Franklin, who, 
at the end of the stormy interview, left ,the Earl pale 
with anger by intimating that he would give his lord- 
ship no further trouble because he had no conception 
that an agent could, ^'nt present^h^ of any use to any 
of the colonies." To this the doughty Irish peer took 
ojBfense and continued to refuse to acknowledge Franklin 
as agent of Massachusetts. 

This did not materially affect the latter' s position or 
influence. Papers and arguments found their way 
through his hands to their proper place and were as ef- 
fective as before. But Franklin had his revenge in see- 
ing Hillsborough soon lose his position, because of his du- 
plicity and of the growing dislike of the King which 
Franklin took care to augment. 

The ministry, desiring to propitiate the colonies as far 
as possible asked Franklin to nominate a successor to 
Hillsborough who would be acceptable to America. He 
suggested the Earl of Dartmouth who was friendly to the 
colonies. 

He got on well with Dartmouth, but the trouble was 
that both the colonies and Parliament had gone too far 
to recede. Each had taken its stand upon the princi- 
ples it meant to abide by and the pleasant personal re- 
lations between Franklin and Dartmouth did not matter. 

Then in 1772 and 1773 came up the wrangle between 
Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts, and the Assem- 
bly over the same old question about colonial taxation. 

That made matters still worse for it embarrassed the 
tninistrv and led the Assemblv of Massachusetts to a res- 



56 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

olution which was absohitely repugnant to the claimed 
powers of Parliament. Franklin and Dartmouth labored 
in vain to undo the mischief that the Stamp Act had 
begun. 

Franklin longed for the restoration of the kindly feel- 
ing and the state of affairs before that awful blunder 
was made. But of course neither he nor Dartmouth 
could turn back the hand on the dial of time. The mis- 
chief had been done and nothing could now undo it. 
Yet he longed for peace and refused to believe that war 
would come. 

He counselled moderation at home; that the mob 
might not get control; but that leaders of ability and 
patriotism might have direction of affairs. Especially 
he recommended the non-importation agreements which 
produced industry and frugality in the colonies and ruin 
to English merchants. They would act as a tariff now 
acts, but without the tremendous cost that a tariff makes 
necessary, and he seemed to be about to accomplish his 
purpose. It had cost vastly more to collect revenue by 
the Customs Act than the revenue was worth. 

The East Indian Company lost enormously by the 
failure of the colonists to purchase tea, while at the same 
time Dutch, Danish, Swedish and French smugglers up 
and down the 1500 miles of sea coast furnished all the 
beverage which the thriving Yankee house-wives wanted. 

Franklin, while in England, never ceased his private 
studies, and large social intercourse with educated 
Englishmen. With him lived his grandson, William 
Temple Franklin, son of the governor of New Jersey. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 57 

The lad was intelligent and comely and a great solace to 
his grandfather under whose eye he was trained. While 
the father in New Jersey was drifting toward the position 
of royalist, the son was imbibing the ideas of liberty. 
With him lived, also, Sally Franklin, a daughter of dis- 
tant English relatives, whom he adopted and educated 
and saw happily married. While he was in England his 
favorite daughter, Sarah, was married to Mr. Bache 
whom Franklin had never seen. Their son was the 
Benjamin Franklin Bache so famous in the controversies 
of Jefferson's day. 

Franklin longed for home as much as ]\Irs. Franklin 
fondly longed for him, but they were never to see each 
other again on earth. She reminded him of home, how- 
ever, by sending Indian meal, cranberries, apples, hick- 
ory nuts and material for buckwheat cakes, which he 
sometimes divided with English friends. 

He was still engaged in helping others. He assisted 
American hospitals; sent the books for a medical library; 
sent a telescope to Harvard College in 1769, and secured 
for his friend, Rev. Samuel Cooper, of Boston, the de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity from Edinburgh University. 
His philosophical investigations at this time would fill 
a volume. 

He discovered how breathing devitalizes the air; sug- 
gested a inethod to ventilate the House of Commons; 
showed that fresh air does not produce colds; dis- 
cussed smoking chimnies, swimming, metallic roofs, 
spots on the sun, rainfall, fire proof stairs, the torpedo, 
Armonica, Northwest Passage, magnet, improved carri- 



58 • BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

age wheels, glass blowing, Prince Knpert's drops, Aurora 
Borealis, inflammatory gases, the effect of vegetation upon 
air and water, the use of oil to calm the waves, the in- 
vention of a stove that should consume its own smoke. 
He discussed questions in political economy, and Adam 
Smith seems to have been indebted to him for some 

parts of "The Wealth 
of Nations." 

Franklin had many 
friends in England; 
some of them have al- 
ready been mentioned. 
He was well acquaint- 
ed with Lord Shel- 
burne, the Marquis of 
Rockingham, Lord Le 
Despense, Lord Bath- 
urst and Lord North. 
He knew George II and 
George HI, Mrs. Mon- 
tague, Garrick, Benjamin West the American painter, 
Horatio Gates and General Charles Lee, Hawksworth, 
Stanley, Dr. Price, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Fothergill, Dr. 
Shipley, and Sir John Pringle. 

He saw Handel conduct for the last time one of his 
own works. He knew intimately Adam Smith and Ed- 
mund Burke. He met Goldsmith and had known Col- 
linson since his first visit to London when a youth. 

Franklin found a true friend in Pringle who in 1772 
was chosen President of the Royal Society, but was 




Gen. Horatio Gates. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 59 

forced by King George III to resign for a singular reas- 
on. The King had in his anger against Americans ob- 
stinately set his mind on having blunt knobs on the 
lightning rods of the Palace instead of sharp points. 
Franklin had directed sharp points for better protection. 
The matter became a court question. All concerned 
were obliged' to line up for or against blunt knobs or 
sharp points, King George III or Franklin. Because 
Pringle sided with Franklin, the King intimated that a 
man who did not know any more than to favor sharp 
conductors was not fit for the position as President of the 
Royal Society. 

An incident about this time added fuel to the flames. 
It was the matter of the Hutchinson letters. Franklin 
naturally resented the measures taken by the govern- 
ment to over- awe the colonies and showed his resent- 
ment. He v/as informed that the measures w^ere those 
advised by Americans and ought to be satisfactory to 
America. This Franklin refused to believe until he 
was confronted with the very letters advising the send- 
ing of troops to Boston and other measures. They were 
written by Thomas Hutchinson governor of Massachu- 
setts and by Lieutenant-Governor Oliver. 

Franklin seemed to think that if leading men of Mas- 
sachusetts could know that the action of the English 
government had been by instigation of men in their own 
colony in high position, it might mitigate the bad feel- 
ing on their part toward Great Britain and tend to a set- 
tlement of matters. 

Whether Franklin was entirely sincere in this or not 



6o BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

may be a question, but his conscience seems to have 
been entirely devoid of offense. At any rate, on this 
understanding he obtained the letters on a pledge that 
they should be given into the hands of a select few only 
and should not be printed or copied. He agreed and 
sent the letters to Massachusetts strictly requiring his 
correspondents to observe the conditions set out. 

In all this Dr. Franklin's judgment was at fault, for 
in this case, as is ahnost sure to happen, some one re- 
fused, in a matter of such great importance, to be bound. 
By a trick the documents found their way into the hands 
of the Assembly and were printed. Their publication 
produced a sensation. There were charges and counter- 
charges. Hutchinson and Oliver were furious; so was 
the Assembly and petitioned the King for the removal 
of the governor and his lieutenant. This petition was 
sent to Franklin and by him presented. 

Meantime the friends of Hutchinson and Oliver, and 
the enemies of the colonies were trying to discover how 
these letters came into the hands of the Asseilibly, and 
over the dispute as to the matter two men fought a bloody 
duel. 

Franklin, at the time, was absent from London and 
on his return heard of the affair and hastened to prevent 
a renewal of the duel by publishing a letter to the effect 
that he sent the documents to Massachusetts. This 
brought the wrath of the English government down on 
Franklin because by this time the matter had become of 
political importance. He was cited to appear before the 
Lords of the Committee for Plantation Affairs on the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. , 61 

matter of the petition, and was there grievously insulted. 
It was rumored that he was to be arrested and sent to 
Newgate and the result of the petition wa§ decided be- 
forehand. The Lords in their decision censured him 
and went out of their way to insult him. 

This judicial censure put an end to his prestige and 
his ability to be of service as Agent of the colonies. He 
was looked upon in England as the fomenter of trouble 
and even Massachusetts found fault with him for alleged 
laxness. His liberty if not his life seemed to be in dan- 
ger. He was threatened with prosecution for treason 
and yet he refused to leave England. He visited Lord 
Chatham and was well received and warmly defended 
by him in the House of Lords, 

One of the last pieces of business he was engaged in 
was one in which he was secretly "approached" by per- 
sons connected with Lord Howe and Lord North. In 
the course of this the formal attempt was made to bribe 
Franklin but without success. In fact, these attempts 
had been very numerous. The political morals of Eng- 
land were then so low, and statesmen were so accustomed 
to bribing and being bribed that they could not conceive 
of any one rejecting such offers as were made to Frank- 
lin. 

He still suffered from the venomous slanders of Arthur 
Lee. He, however, placed his agencies in Lee's hands 
and spent one last day with his tried friend. Dr. Priest- 
ley, who never deserted him. 

Franklin experienced profound feeling in leaving Eng- 
land. It meant the impossibility to peaceably settle the 



62 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

troubles between England and her colonies. To avoid 
arrest, he went to Portsmouth as secretly as possible and 
arrived in Philadelphia May 5, 1775. In the meantime 
his faithful wife, with whom he had lived so long, had 
passed away. 

Americans of the present day scarcely ever appreciate 
the fact that PVanklin performed his greatest services for 
his country when he was an old man; when he had 
passed beyond the age to which very few attain, an age 
when those that reach it are beginning to be feeble in 
body and torpid in mind. 

When Franklin returned from England he was sixty- 
nine years old; older than Washington when he died. 

When he landed, the battles of Lexington and Con- 
cord had already been fought. The colonies needed the 
services of every man, but especially of a man whose 
character and abilities were so transcendent. Therefore 
instead of coming home to spend his old age in peace 
and quiet, Franklin was called upon to perform services 
that were so harassing and difficult that they would have 
taxed the energies of a far younger man. 

The breach between the colonies and the mother 

country, of course, brought a breach between him and 

his English friends. It would not do at this point to 

omit the very famous letter to Mr. Strahan, his friend 

for many years. It was dated July 5th, 1775: — 

"Mr. Strahan: 

You are a Member of Parliament, and one of that Majority which 
has doomed my Country to Destruction. You have begun to burn 
our Towns, and murder our People — Look upon your hands I — They 
are stained with the Blood of your Relations! — You and I were long 



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Reduced Fac-Simile of Franklin's Famous Letter to Mr. Strahan. 



64 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Friends: — You are now my Enemy, — and I am, Amours, 

B. Franklin." 

This breach between old friends was, however, healed 
in after years and they became enemies no longer. 

In quite a different strain he wrote to Dr. Priestley, 
for whom he had a deep affection, but his letters show 
profound feeling against England. He bade him tell 
his friends in England that they need have no doubts as 
to America's firmness. 

"Britain" he said, "at the expense of three millions, 
has killed one hundred and fifty Yankees this campaign, 
which is twenty thousand pounds a head; — during the 
same time sixty thousand children have been born in 
America." 

He then bids them "calculate the time and expense 
necessary to kill us all, and conquer our whole territory." 

He had hardly landed in May before he was elected 
delegate to the Second Continental Congress. He was 
especially active on committees and was instrumental in 
organizing the army, navy and the finances of the new 
government. 

He was especially instrumental in outlining the na- 
tional policy of the government. His calm tempera^ 
ment and sound judgment made him just the person to 
harmonize conflicting interests. He equalized and uni- 
fied action. He restrained the over zealous, and spurred 
on the slow footed. 

To the contention that America was unfillial in her 
rebellion, he retorted that Britain had never accorded 
any advantage to Saxony, her mother country, but had 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. - 65 

subsidized the King of Prussia to invade that mother 
country. In all this he had to have his joke, and Parton 
in his "Life of Franklin" conjectures that the reason 
why he was not called upon to write the Declaration of 
Independence was that he would have put a joke in it. 

"His jokes, the circulating medium of Congress, were 
as helpful to the cause as Jay's conscience, or Adams 
fire; — but they were out of place in formal, exact, and 
authoritative papers. " 

Having once tried his hand on the plan of union of 
1754, he drew up a plan of union for the colonies which 
he presented July 21, 1775, which is called the "First 
Sketch of a Plan of Confederation which is known to have 
been presented to Congress." It is of interest to notice 
that it provided for the admission to the confederation, 
on application, of Ireland, West Indies Islands, Canada, 
and Florida. 

Not only did he have to serve in Congress, but he w^as 
put in charge of the postal service, and made chairman 
of the provincial committee of safety to organize Penn- 
sylvania for war. 

He tells Dr. Priestley in a letter that he began his 
daily work at six o'clock in the morning by attendance 
upon this committee. 

He also "devised and constructed" marine Chevmix 
de frise to protect the Delaware river. 

In October, 1775, he was elected a member of the As- 
sembly of Pennsylvania, but as the oath of allegiance to 
the King was still required he refused to take it and re- 
signed his place. 



66 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

In September, as one of a committee for Congress, he 
had gone to Boston to confer with Washington and to 
view the condition of the war. 

It took thirteen days to go on horseback from Phila- 




Meeting of Washington and the Commissioners— Franklin. Benjamin Harrison 

and Thomas Lynch, Cambridge. October, 1775. 

From Holle.v"s "Life of Franklin." 

delphia to Boston. There he, of course, met the great 
leaders of the Revolution who looked upon him with 
the greatest admiration. As if all these services were 
not enough to put upon an old man of seventy years. 
Congress was selfish enough to send him to Canada to 
confer with Arnold about the attitude of Canada. It 
was early in the year and the ice still made progress in 
the lakes and rivers impossible. Upon reaching Sarato- 
ga he realized the task he had undertaken and sat down 




Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, where the first Continental Con- 
gress met on September 5, 1774. 



68 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



to say a last word to his friends whom he never expected 
to see again. Writing to Josiah Onincy he said: 

"I begin to apprehend that I have undertaken a fa- 
tigue that at my time of life may prove too much forme; 

so I sit down 
to write to a 
few friends 
by ^v a y of 
farewell." 

He lived to 
reach Cana- 
da, but the 
state of his 
health com- 
pelled a quick 
return with- 
o u t accom- 
plishing any- 
thing. Upon 
recommenda- 
tion of Con- 
gress, the dif- 
ferent states 
set about 
erecting new, independent governments, and of course 
Franklin was called^ upon for assistance and advice in 
regard to Pennsylvania's constitution. He was elected a 
member of the constitutional convention and presided 
over its meetings. The new constitution called for a 
legislature of one house, Pennsylvania being one of only 




Interior, Carpenter's Hall. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 69 

two states having but one house. Franklin seems to 
liave always opposed bi-cameral legislatures. 

Even in the spring of 1776, many leaders were op- 
posed to permanent independence, but Franklin could 
see no probability of a return to the old order of things, 
and when Samuel Adams threatened to form a New 
Eno-land c o n- 

fcderacy, Frank- ii^ig^ "V:'''T''> ■''':';',:l...- 

lin offered to 
join it. 

But he did not 
need to join a 
N e w England 
confederacy to 
declare his in- 
dependence of 
England, for it 
was only a short 
time until he 
was on a com- 
mittee appoint- 
ed by Congress 
to draft a Dec- 
laration of Independence. During the debate on the 
Declaration he amused Jefferson wnth stories, and wdien 
the immortal document was about to be signed, gave 
utterance to that grim joke which is world famous: 

"Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or assuredly 
we shall all hang separately." 

When it came to establishing a working government 




Franklin Signing the Declaration of Independence. 



70 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

and to forming a constitution, Franklin liad great influ- 
ence. He made a draft of Articles of Confederation, 
which his experience in the convention of 1754 had 
fitted him to do. 

When the struggle arose between the large and small 
states and their proportion of power, he was in favor of 
the larger states, for we must remember that Pennsylva- 
nia was then, as now, the second state in the union in 
population. He wanted the voting according to popula- 
tion, and did not regard the danger of the large states 
swallowing up the smaller as worthy of consideration. 

In his humorous way he illustrated it by Scotland 
and England. He explained tliat it was raid when 
Scotland was united to England that the whale had 
swallowed Jonah, but when Lord Bute came into power 
it was seen that Jonah had swallowed the wdiale. 

Lord Howe was especially acceptable to Americans, 
and was for this reason sent to America in July, 1776, 
to affect a reconciliation. He communicated with 
Franklin whom he had known in England. Franklin 
answered by authority of Congress in a firm and rather 
aggressive letter giving Lord Howe the reasons wdiy no 
reconciliation could be effected upon any other basis than 
independence. 

Lord Howe took this aggressive letter in good part 
for he seems to have had a genuine likino- for Franklin, 
and after the battle of Long Island tried again by parol- 
ling General Sullivan and sending him w^th a message 
to Congress proposing an accommodation. Franklin, 
John Adams and Edward Rutledge were sent to meet 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 71 

him, but the conference amounted to nothing for his 
Lordship was told by all three that the colonies could 
not return to the domination of Great Britain. vSuch 
was the condition of affairs when Franklin was elected 
in September, 1776, envoy to France. 

It is easy to see why Franklin was chosen for this im- 
portant work. Besides his unrivalled judgment and tact, 
he was the only American who had had anything ap- 
proaching diplomatic experience. Diplomats of that day 
and of a few rebellious colonies had naturally a very dif- 
ficult position. Europeans were in no hurry to ac- 
knowledge the independence of rebellious peoples even 
though they desired to strike a blow at England. For 
monarchs to do that looked like encouraging attempts at 
liberty at home. 

It was evident to all that the colonies could hope for 
the most from France of all the European nations. Her 
statesmen had foreseen this struggle 'for independence, 
and had expected that thus England would be repaid for 
the taking of Canada. 

Silas Deane had already been sent to France, even be- 
fore the colonies had declared themselves independent, 
and Arthur Lee, then in London, had been directed to 
ascertain the disposition of the European powers. 

Morse, in his "Life of Franklin," says of Deane: "He 
was the true Yankee jack-at-all-trades; he had been 
graduated at Yale College, then taught school, then 
practiced law, then engaged in trade — had been elected 
to the first and second Congresses — and was now with- 
out employment. " 



72 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

He could not speak French, and had had no adequate 
training whatever, and soon got so involved that he was 
recalled practically in disgrace, having partly lost his 
reputation for financial honesty. He was, no doubt, 
hardly used and suffering unjustly, but being unwilling 
to await the vindication of history, he became, like Ar- 
nold, embittered, lost his head, 
turned renegade to his country, 
and died in exile broken down 
and unreconciled. 

Deane reached France in June? 
1776, with some letters of intro- 
duction from Franklin. He had 
a little money, and was to be fur- 
nished more by sending to him 
cargoes of American products like 

Count de Vergenues. • +^i ^^ ^t.^ 

nee, tobacco, etc. 

His first business was to sound Vergenues, the French 
minister, as to what help the colonies could expect, and 
was further to ask for military supplies and equipment 
for 25,000 men, with 200 pieces of field artillery. Of 
course the colonies had no money with which to pay for 
the things needed, and so offered to pay in promises. 

Deane found Vergenues on the whole favorable to the 
colonies, as were other members of the French Cabinet, 
and these overcame the scruples of Louis XVI, who 
seems not to have understood the significance of the 
movement he was about to assist. 

While Deane was to conduct his mission in secrecy, as 
a merchant writing under the name of Timothy Jones, 




BENJAMIN P^RANKLIN. 73 

and adding to his commercial letters dispatches in invis- 
ible ink, he had too much of the failing of the Connecti- 
cut Yankee to keep still. He indiscreetly told every- 
thing he knew to Dr. Edward Bancroft, an American 
whom Congress had hired as a spy. Bancroft was a 
traitor, and communicated his information to the British 
ministry. 

Before Dcane arrived in France, Beaumarchais, "one 
of the most extraordinary characters in history," had, 
while in England, imbibed the notion from Arthur Lee 
that the colonies were invincible, and had begun opera- 
tions in France in their behalf. He was greatly in favor 
with the young King, and his enthusiasm infected even 
the King. 

Vergennes sided with Beaumarchais, and declared 
that now was the time to reduce England to a second 
class power. He wanted the rebellion to last at least 
one year, so that the colonies would suffer so much as to 
thoroughly hate England. He favored keeping nomi- 
nally a friendly attitude toward England while secretly 
assisting the Americans. 

Turgot argued differently, and opposed this scheme 
and won the King to his side, but \>rgennes was the 
coming man in France and controlled the policy of the 
realm. He and Beaumarchais thereupon concocted a 
remarkable scheme to secretly help the colonies. 

The firm of Roderique Hortalcz & Co. was established 
in Paris, and Beaumarchais was made manager. The 
capital, $600,000 in all, was secretly furnished by the 
French and Spanish governments. Beaumarchais was 



74 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

to act simply as a merchant "at liis own risk and peril.'' 
He was to use his capital to purchase military supplies 
for the colonies, which, however, would be sold from the 
French arsenals. But he was obliged to pay for them, 
and when he sold them to the colonies he was to get his 
return in American products. 

Deane arrived just then, heard what was doing, told 
it all to Bancroft, Bancroft to the British government, 
and British cruisers shut up the ships of Hortalez & Co. 
in French harbors. 

The British government vehemently complained; 
Vergennes was obliged to issue strict instructions against 
unlawful trade and Beaumarchais, reduced with a ven- 
geance to the level of a real merchant, had to get his 
goods out and in as best he could. He had no favorit- 
ism shown him by the government, and consequently it 
was a long time before he got any supplies to America. 
He, also, could not get American products in, and was 
near bankruptcy. But Franklin arrived late in 1776, 
and things began to look brighter. 

Congress had in the early autumn decided to send a 
regular embassy to France, and elected Franklin, Jeffer- 
son and Deane (who was already there), to represent the 
colonies in France. Jefferson declined and Arthur Lee 
was substituted. 

Franklin ran great risks in going to France, as he had 
to go in a sloop of war of only sixteen guns, which was 
several times chased by British frigates. Soon after 
landing he wrote to one who playfully called him a 
rebelj that she must w^ait the outcome to see whether 



3^ 

n 

o 



n 




76 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

it was a rebellion or a revolution. His appearance in 
Paris caused a furore, and Lord Rockingham said that 
Franklin's presence more than offset the victory of the 
English at Long Island. They looked upon him as a 
sage, an ideal of republican simplicity, compared with 
immortal Greeks and Romans. 

Strange, indeed, to the gay Parisians must have 
seemed his appearance with his spectacles and cap of 
fur, his brown Quaker clothes of colonial cut, his head 
devoid of a wig. 

He seemed to enjoy a reputation, according to John 
Adams, greater than either Leibnitz, Newton, Frederick 
or Voltaire. In order not to embarrass the government, 
he established himself in the retired suburb of Passy. 
He lived plainly but comfortably, although he w^as ac- 
cused by John Adams of extravagance. 

On December 23, 1776, the American envoys wrote to 
Vergennes and requested an audience. They were 
granted one the 28th. They asked for a treaty of com- 
merce and alliance, and the loan of eight ships of the 
line to enable them to get American ships, then block- 
aded in America by English vessels, out of port and off 
to France. This was refused, but they were offered a 
strictly secret loan of $400,000, to be paid after the war 
without interest. 

Franklin did not have any practical connection with 
what was going on between Beaumarchais and Deane, 
and even Deane did not know the connection between 
Beaumarchais and the French government. That did 
not come out for fifty years. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 77 

As it happened, Arthur Lee was an implacable enemy 
of Silas Deane, and, Morse says, "resembled the devil in 
at least one particular, in-as-much as he was the foe of all 
mankind." Beaumarchais early had taken a dislike to 
Lee, and made use of Deane in Lee's place. This an- 
gered Lee, who wrote letters to Congress not to send 
ships consigned to Beaumarchais, for the reason that 
they only went to fill the pockets of Deane and Beau- 
marchais. He had not a particle of evidence and there 
w^as no truth in the libel, but Congress was bewildered 
by contradictory letters from Beaumarchais, Deane and 
Lee, and refused to send the ships, and recalled Deane. 

Deane tried repeatedly to get liis reputation cleared 
from these libels of Lee, but failed because he could not, 
of course, produce the evidence existing in France. 
Franklin believed him innocent, and Deane insisted 
that Congress owed him $60,000, which he could not re- 
cover. In 1835, however. Congress paid to Deane's 
heirs a part of the sum due him. 

The real cause of Deane' s recall seems to have been 
the following: Large numbers of French officers, espec- 
ially, sought service in the American armies. They 
were in most part adventurers. But Deane was dazzled 
by their over-estimation of the invaluable assistance 
they could render the cause, and sent over great num- 
bers of them. These, after they had harassed Washing- 
ton nearly to death, had to be shipped back at the ex- 
pense of Congress with some salve, in the way of tips, to 
their wounded feelings. Of course when they got back 
they were enemies of America, 



78 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin appreciated the difficulties of Deane's posi- 
tion, he being unacquainted with the language, and 
spoke a good word for Deane to Congress, saying that 
he "daily proves himself to my certain knowledge, an 
able, faithful, active and extremely useful servant of the 
public, etc." 

It is to be remembered, moreover, that Deane is the 
one who did such signal service 
to the colonies by commissioning 
Lafayette, Steuben and DeKalb. 
Franklin had the same trouble. 
He wrote: 

"Great officers of all ranks, in 
all departments, ladies great and 
small, .... worry me from morn- 
ing to night. The noise of every 
coach now that enters my court 
terrifies me. ' ' 

But he had the firmness to bluntly refuse these that 
importuned him, and so wrote to Washington. He drew 
up a "Model of a Letter of Recommendation of a person 
you are Unacquainted with," that was a stinging rebuke 
to place-hunters. Yet he recommended good men like 
Lafayette and Steuben with letters of real value. 

In one way England was at a great disadvantage in 
the war. She had an enormous commerce, and the col- 
onies early turned toward privateering as a means of 
harassing their enemy. 

One of the first to see the advantage of such a course 
was Franklin in France, who early began arrangements 




Baron DeKalb. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 79 

to make France the center of cruising; in English waters. 
It nnist, of course, be borne in mind that privateering- 
was then regarded in a much more favorable light than 
now. Under his direction and by his aid Conyngham 
and Wickes, and other gallant but reckless men fairly 
took Englishmen's breath away by their boldness and 
success. They took hosts of prizes and prisoners, and 
in London insurance ran up to a premium of sixty per 
cent, and even on boats plying between Dover and 
Calais, to ten per cent. 

Franklin was the center of this. He issued instruct- 
ions and commissions, gave orders and suggestions, 
paid bills, purchased ships; in fact, "he was the only 
American government which these independent sailors 
knew." 

But this issuing from a neutral port to capture ves- 
sels, only to bring them back to port to condemn and 
sell as prizes, was contrary to international law, and at 
once brought the French government into trouble with 
England. 

Vergennes wanted to avoid war with England if possi- 
ble, and increased the strictness of his instructions as to 
neutral ports. This made the American officers angry, 
without reason it must be said. Their boundless assur- 
ance was something remarkable, and Franklin had to 
spend considerable time in keeping the peace. He very 
adroitly did this by correspondence and argument, re- 
quests and correcting mistakes, wdiich all meant delay, 
while the American captains meantime were playing 
havoc with English commerce. This was possible, be- 



8o BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

cause Franklin well knew that secretly the French were 
favoring the Americans in the privateering. 

But numerous captures brought another trouble. 
Prisoners got so numerous that Franklin did not know 
what to do with them. He, of course, had no place for 
them in France, nor could he send them to America. 

Meantime the American prisoners in England were 
very badly used. He then tried to effect, through his 
old friend David Hartley, who was in Parliament and 
stood well with Lord North, to arrange a general scheme 
of exchange- of prisoners. Hartley worked hard to this 
end, but to no purpose. 

Franklin sent regularly money to England to better 
the condition of American prisoners there, but it was 
mostly embezzled by his agent. 

At last Franklin had to release his British prisoners 
for w^ant of means and a place to keep them. 

Franklin's vexations were numberless, and a man not 
well poised would have succumbed to them and re- 
signed. Thomas Morris, commercial agent for the col- 
onies at Nantes, turned out to be a drunkard and a ras- 
cal. Franklin found it necessary to employ another, his 
own nephew, to take part of Morris's duties. This an- 
g-ered Robert Morris, brother of Thomas; but he after- 
ward retracted his harsh words of resentment on being 
presented with indisputable evidence of his brother's 
wrong doing. 

Arthur Lee now, also, had to vent his venomous ha- 
tred on Franklin and his nephew, which latter individ- 
ual did his work well and honestly. Lee accused him 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 8i 

of being implicated with Deane in stealing money in the 
way of prizes. He even got the ear of John Adams, on 
his arrival to take Deane's place, and in an insnlting 
manner compelled Franklin to discharge his nephew. 

The year 1777 
was a trying 
year even to the 
sangnine Dr. 
Franklin. It was 
the year of the 
retreat across 
New Jersey, of 
Valley Forge, 
of Howe's cap- 
tnre of Philadel- 
phia, and Bur- 
go y n e ' s ad- 
vance. 

The commis- 
sioners beo;ored 

^^ Kuberl Morris. 

for more funds 

from France, and got timely but inadequate relief. The 
news of the fall of Philadelphia was like a dash of cold 
water. The French government became more and more 
distant, yet Franklin did not give up hope. When some 
Englishman said to him: 

"Well, doctor, Howe has taken Philadelphia," he an- 
swered, "I beg your pardon sir, Philadelphia has taken 
Howe." 

This proved to be true; yet even then a British cap- 




82 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

tain was living in Franklin's house, tampering with his 
electrical machines, while the patriot'sdaughter with her 
four day's old infant had to be hurried out of the city. 

So dark did the outlook become that, when the three 
commissioners met at Passy to discuss the situation, 
Deane favored demanding from France a categorical an- 
swer to the question of an alliance and, if she refused, de- 
claring to her that the alternative was an accommodation 
with Great Britain. But happily both Franklin and Lee 
opposed this. Probably Lee opposed it because he hated 
Deane worse than he did Franklin. 

But a good time was coming. After Bemis Heights 
and Stillwater, Burgoyne was compelled to surrender. 
Massachusetts at once sent out the Secretary of the Board 
of War, Jonathan Loring Austin, to acquaint France with 
the news. She prepared a swift sailing vessel and as soon 
as dispatches were ready bade the young man "God 
speed." For all saw at once the immense importance of 
gettiug news to France without delay. 

The' vessel made a quick passage and early in Decem- 
ber Austin arrived at Passy. When his carriage was 
heard in the court all the Americans were ready to receive 
him and before he could alight Franklin asked whether 
Philadelphia was really taken, and when the messenger 
answered "Yes," the old man turned sorrowfully away 
as if to enter the house. Then Austin exclaimed that 
Burgoyne and his whole army were prisoners of war. 

The joy of the American legation was too deep for ex- 
pression. Deane said: "The news was like a sovereign 
cordial for the dying." 



BENJAMIN' FRAXKLIX. 83 

Soon dispatches were sent to Vergennes at Versailles. 
At once all Paris knew it and burst into acclamations. 
Soon all Europe knew it, too, and felt that the colonies 
at last were lost to Great Britain. 

The attitude of the French ministry immediately 
changed. Two days after the news was received M. Ge- 
rard called to say that a renewal of negotiations for an 
alliance w^ould be agreeable to the French government. 
In a few days the Cabinet met and the envoys went to 
Versailles, where in a concealed spot in the wood they had 
a long conversation with Vergennes. But Spain also had 
to be consulted and this led to some delay. So did a dis- 
agreement over a clause that no export duty should be 
levied on molasses taken from the French West Indian 
islands to the colonies for the manufacture of rum. This 
was of importance because our forefathers, while extreme- 
ly strict religionists, had succeeded in making molasses 
for rum the ''basis on which a very great part of the Amer- 
ican commerce rested. ' ' 

]\I. Gerard demanded a reciprocal concession, which 
Franklin shrewdly drew up in the shape of an agree- 
ment not to lay export duties on articles purchased in 
the colonies for the French West Indies. At first Ar- 
thur Lee agreed to this, but afterward objected under 
the influence of William Lee and Ralph Izard, after the 
King had approved the treaty and it had been engrossed. 
Gerard was disgusted with good reason, but finally con- 
sented to leave both exemptions to the decision of Con- 
gress. 

On February 6th, all parties met to sign the treaty 



84 , BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

which, according to the stipulation, was to be kept se- 
cret until ratified by Congress. At the signing of the 
treaty Franklin wore the suit of Manchester velvet he 
had worn when so grievously insulted in the Privy 
Council. 

France had feared some accommodation between the 
colonies and Great Britain, and this accounts for her in- 
creasing liberality, and also for her desire for secrecy 
until Congress acted on the treaty. There was some 
ground for this fear, for after Burgoyne surrendered to 
"Mr. Gates," Lord North introduced into Parliament 
two conciliatory bills which w^ere "to restore the form of 
constitution as it stood before the trouble." 

But the bills were passed too late, for the treaty was 
already signed, and news of it had already come to the 
ears of Charles Fox and the opposition. They were 
passed, however, and reached America almost at the 
same time with the French treaty, and, of course, were 
promptly rejected by Congress. 

Meantime, Franklin, who always kept in communica- 
tion with the opposition party in England, sent Austin, 
for whom he had conceived a great regard, on a secret 
mission to Great Britain. He was to acquaint the op- 
position with the latest news and the real state of affairs 
in the colonies. He accomplished his purpose with 
skill; lived in the family of the Earl of Shelburne under 
the protection of Dr. Priestley; was introduced to the 
Prince of Wales and Charles Fox, and was present at 
the meetings of the opposition. 

Of course no reconciliation with Great Britain which 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 85 

Franklin had to do with was possible, for the King- 
hated Franklin with an extreme personal hatred which 
Franklin fully reciprocated 

The treaty of commerce signed at the same time as 




Voltaire. 



that of alliance inserted the principle which Franklin 
favored, i. e.^ that free ships should make free goods and 
free persons, also, except soldiers. After the treaty was 
signed Voltaire came back to Paris, and the two 



aged 



86 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

men met upon the stage of the Academy of Sciences and 
saluted each other, whereupon, Frenchmanlike, the 
crowd went wild with enthusiasm, and embraced one 
another to see the "new Solon and Sophocles" exchange 
greetings. 

Gerard soon went out as the first French envoy to the 
United States, and with him went Deane. Their depart- 
ure was kept secret from Lee who took offense and still 
further pestered the Doctor with his untiring malevolence. 

Morse says that there probably remain few epithets in 
the English language which have not at some time or 
another been applied to Lee. He deserved them all for 
he did immense mischief. Vergennes liated him and all 
Europe ridiculed his want of capacity. Franklin chari- 
tably called him insane. 

When John Adams arrived in Paris to take Ueane's 
place, he found papers in confusion and books and ac- 
counts badly kept, because a perfectly enormous amount 
of labor had been put upon tlie commission with no cler- 
ical help. He was much disposed to lay the blame on 
Franklin at first, but soon found out that the condition 
of affairs with three envoys and no clerical force could 
not be helped. He therefore advised reducing the num- 
ber to one envoy. Lee with his intense egotism thought 
he would be the one designated, but not so. Franklin 
was left in France, Lee accredited to Spain as at first, and 
Adams was recalled to America. 

The struggle in Congress to ruin Dr. Franklin and 
procure his recall and to put Arthur Lee in his place was 
a bitter one. It was a cabal like that of Conway against 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



87 




Washington and was due, as was Deane's ruin, to the al- 
most unheard of malevolence of Arthur Lee. 

Under Franklin's assistance naval operations began 
again with John Paul Jones as commander. He embar- 
rassed the Britons even more than Conyngham and 
Wickes; made incursions on land, 
spiked guns in forts and burnt 
ships under the very noses of 
Englishmen before they could re- 
cover from their astonishment. 

His famous fight with the "6^^- 
rapis'^ is well known. It stirs 
the blood yet to read of the en- 
gagement, but it has a ridiculous 
side, for it strongly excites the 
humor to think of the crazy 
Frenchman, Landais, captain under Jones, during the 
battle sailing up and down, firing broadside after broad- 
side into the ^^Bon Homme Richard^^ of his comman- 
der, too crazy with excitement to know what he was 
about. Soon Landais quarrelled wdth Jones and Franklin 
had to patch up that difference. Landais afterward 
went insane. 

The financial duties of Franklin proved to be the most 
vexatious and humiliating that he had to perform. Con- 
gress carried on the war without available funds or anv 
direct means of deriving funds. They resorted to two 
methods of meeting their obligations, i. e.^ issuing irre- 
deemable paper money and borrowing abroad. 

Congress had no revenues because it could lay no tax- 



John Paul Jones. 



88 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

es. It could only call on the states to pay their quotas. 
If they saw fit to do so, well and good, if not. Congress 
had to get along without them, for there w^as no way in 
which it could compel the states. 

It follows of course that Congress could give no secur- 
ity for loans, and we have the absurd picture of a debtor 
who is utterly irresponsible asking the loan of funds. All 
that the creditor could do was to trust in Providence. 
To be sure the states did pay a little in driblets as they 
were called upon, but the sums were entirely inadequate. 

The paper money circulated in the colonies, but would 
not, of course, circulate abroad, and even in the colonies 
it began at once to depreciate. The outcom-e of this all 
was that the burden fell on the envoys to Europe who 
were really sent over there to borrow or beg what they 
could from foreign nations. 

But this does not complete the picture. Jay found it 
impossible to get money in Spain, as did John Adams in 
Holland. More than that; just as soon as their enyoys 
had left the shores of America, Congress began sending 
after them drafts for large amounts, with the supremest 
indifference as to how they could get the money to pay 
the drafts. 

They even sent drafts on Henry Laurens who was cap- 
tured and sent to London Tower. The absurdity of it all 
has never been surpassed. 

All these drafts centered on Franklin, who was the 
only one who succeeded in getting money, and we must 
think of a continuous snow-fall of drafts on his devoted 
head, until he floundered about in great difficulty and 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



89 



was forever trying to extricate himself. He had even 
to pay Jay's household expenses in Spain because Con- 
gress did not furnish him his salary. 

The cargoes of tobacco, rice, indigo, etc., that were to 
offset these drafts for the most part never came. Some- 
times the ship's captain 
ran off with them; some- 
times the ships foundered; 
but oftener the British 
captured them. Franklin 
said with a sigh, that it 
simply resulted in the 
English getting all these 
goods for nothing. 

Then Arthur Lee and 
Izard drew on him for 
$10,000 each, on the 
ground that they were 
about to go to Spain and 

Italy respectively, to which countries they were ac- 
credited; and then they never went. They did not fail, 
however, to use up the money. 

The brave seamen who had fought in the European 
waters for the colonies demanded their pay, and Frank- 
lin had to put them off with one suit of clothes apiece. 

To add to the trouble, the individual states began to 
flood Europe with agents for the purpose of borrowing 
money, and Congress seemed to be about as unconcerned 
as school boys about drawing bills on anybody and 
everybody. 




John Jay. 



90 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

But Franklin carried the burden to the end without 
dropping it, thanks to the very remarkable good nature 
and kindness of Vergennes and the French government. 
The services of Franklin in this regard can hardly be 
overdrawn; they were of extreme importance. 

Congress never allowed Franklin, a man of over sev- 
enty years of age, a secretary or copyist, and when he 
took his grandson William Temple Franklin as a secre- 
tary, he did it on his own responsibility and could pay 
him, sometimes his board, sometimes not even that. 

Yet Congress because of Lee and others, persecuted 
the old man through his grandson, formed a cabal 
against him and threatened to discharge the young man. 
Big business Congress was in! Franklin had asked many 
times that Congress do something in recognition of the 
services of William Temple Franklin who had sacrificed 
his prospects in life to act as the secretary to his grand- 
father. Franklin never asked but this one favor. Con- 
gress put the request aside with contemptuous indiffer- 
ence. 

We can easily see why at the end of the Revolution 
and during the time of the Articles of Confederation, 
Congress had lost the respect of the people. 

Finally March, 1781, Franklin determined to resign, 
but then Congress took alarm and refused to accept his 
resignation. It had refused any proper appointment 
and salary for his grandson; had almost always neglect- 
ed any expression of thanks for his untiring services for 
his country, many of them entirely outside of his regu- 
lar province; but when he was worn out and disheart- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ^r 

ened and wanted rest and quiet, they refused to give 
him that. 

Meantime Adams had been sent back, having been 
appointed with Franklin, Jay, Laurens and Jefferson, to 
treat for peace. 
Adams at once 
set about stir- 
ring up a hor- 
net's nest in the 
French minis- 
try by usurping 
part of Frank- 
lin's preroga- 
tives, and grat- 
uitously in- 
structing Ver- 
gennes on mat- 
ters connected 
with America. 
Vergennes dis- 
liked i\ dams ex- 
tremely, much 
as he did Lee. 

When Congress passed the act to redeem the continen- 
tal currency, a considerable of which Frenchmen held, 
far below its face value, Adams sent Vergennes word of 
it. The minister was much exasperated, and protested 
against the injustice of it as far as the French were con- 
cerned. Adams was then so lacking in tact as to write 
a strong defence of the action of Congress, and the quar- 




Heury Laurens. 



92 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

rel grew so bitter that both parties had to call in Frank- 
lin to patch up a peace. 

From the very beginning of the war England had 
made efforts to come to some understanding with the 
United States. The British government showed its ap- 
preciation of Franklin by directing all of its attention in 
these matters to him. He stood in Europe for America. 

Franklin's old friend Hartley had been especially for- 
ward in schemes for peace. They tried to frighten 
Franklin about the harm that would come to the colon- 
ies through "throwing^ themselves into the arms" of their 
ancient enemy, France. 

But such efforts on the part of England were too thin- 
ly veiled to be effective with the astute old man. Frank- 
lin did not propose that the colonies should throw over a 
friend who was helping them to freedom for any enemy 
who was trying to enslave them. The battle of York- 
town was the besrinninor of the end. The commissioners 
from America to treat for peace were appointed. Lord 
North's ministry fell, and Rockingham formed one of 
friends of America in which was Charles Fox and Lord 
Shelburne. 

The negotiations developed many coflicting interests. 
Lord Shelburne had some idea of making independence 
a matter of treaty and providing for some sort of federal 
union instead of entire independence. 

Fox, who was hostile to Shelburne and wished to con- 
trol the negotiations, offered to grant immediate inde- 
pendence. This split in the Cabinet led to sending two 
envoys to France both trying to divide France and the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 93 

United States. The treaty of 1778 between the United 
States and France provided that neither party should 
make peace except in conjunction with the other, and 
England tried, in spite of this, to deal with the United 
States and France separately. But both Vergennes and 
Franklin refused to be parties to such a scheme. 

Spain also made a disturbing element. She had been 
in alliance with France and England and had claims for 
territory in America and elsewhere that she wished to 
further. So perplexing did affairs become that Frank- 
lin sent for Jay in hot haste to come from Spain to aid 
him, Adams being yet in Holland. 

When Jay got to Paris he was convinced that France 
was undertaking to deal with England secretly, to pre- 
vent the right of fishing on the Banks of New^foundland 
going into the treaty. He insisted also that independence 
should not be a matter of treaty, but should be acknowl- 
edged before any treaty was made. This Franklin was 
inclined to waive. 

So convinced was Jay that Vergennes had sent an agent 
to make secret arrangements with Lord Shelburnc, then 
at the head of the English ministry, that he alone, on his 
own responsibility, sent Vaughan secretly to prove to the 
English minister that England's advantage lay in siding 
with the United States. Vaughan did his duty well and 
was sent back wath an amended document empowering 
the English agent to treat with the Commissioners of the 
Thirteen United States of America. Jay had won. 

Meantime Vergennes had been using his influence on 
Congress through the French minister, and Congress 



94 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

sent over stringent orders as to the treaty, that American 
demands outside of independence should not stand in the 
way of the purposes of France. 

This still further convinced Jay that France intended 
to jeopardize the interests of the United States in regard 
to matters other than independence. He favored disobey- 
ing the specific commands of Congress. On this point, 
as on several others, he and Franklin sharply differed, 
for Franklin could not believe that France would act un- 
unworthily of herself. To the advice of Jay to conduct 
the negotiations without the knowledge of France, he re- 
sponded: "No." 

It was a deadlock, but Adams soon arrived from Hol- 
land sided with Jay. Franklin then had to give way, and 
did so without a quarrel. He decided to stand by his 
colleagues and refrain from communicating with Ver- 
gennes. 

In this whole matter both Jay and Adams had an axe 
to grind. Jay wanted the Mississippi made the Western 
boundary wdth the right of navigation of the river. Ad- 
ams wanted to procure the right of fishing off Newfound- 
land. France opposed both these demands; the first on 
account of her ally, Spain; the second on her own ac- 
count. When they got rid of her by making a secret 
treaty, they won both points. 

Such concessions drove Shelburne out of power for it 
was seen that the commissioners for the United States 
had done a brilliant piece of work. Of course Vergennes 
was indignant at the manner in which the treaty was ar- 
rived at and wrote sharp letters to Franklin,who explained 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 95 

the matter best as he could. iVs often happens in such 
cases, Jay and Adams were condemned at home because 
they did not side with France,and Franklin because he did. 

In 1782 after the treaty, Franklin resigned a second 
time, but Congress kept him there until March, 1785, 
when it voted his return. These years were spent in 
making commercial treaties with Sweden, Denmark, 
Portugal, Morocco and Prussia. The one with Prussia 
called for the abolishment of privateering. 

Jefferson succeeded Franklin, and when he was asked 
"C'est vous. Monsieur, qui remplace le Docteur Frank- 
lin?" he replied: "No one can replace him, sir; I am 
only his successor." 

The Doctor left France in the summer of 1785, al- 
though several persons had offered him a home as long 
as he lived. But he desired to spend the rest of his 
days with his family. When he left he carried a por- 
trait of the King framed in a double circle of four hun- 
dred and eight diamonds of great cost and beauty. He 
crossed the channel to take ship at Portsmouth, and the 
British government did him the honor to exempt his 
baggage from examination. His son William, who was 
a Tory, came to see him, and a partial reconciliation 
took place between them. 

On September 14, 1785, the ship on which Franklin 
sailed came in full view of Philadelphia. For this city 
he had a genuine affection, and called it "dear Philadel- 
phia." When he landed at the Market Street wharf he 
was "received by a crowd of people with huzzas, and ac- 
companied with acclamations quite to my door 



q6 benjamin franklin. 

God be praised and thanked for all his mercies." He 
received endless addresses, both pnblic and private, 
congratulating him on his return, and they all show 
great consideration and even affection. 

His health was' now fairly good, and in his letter to 
Mr. and Mrs. Jay he says that he finds himself rather 
better for the voyage. But his countrymen could not 
do without his services. They at once elected him coun- 
cillor for Philadelphia, and on taking his seat he was 
chosen President of Pennsylvania. 

In a letter to his sister he says in a playful way that 
he could not resist the desire of his people, and added 
that when sent to France he had said: 

"They have eaten my flesh and seem resolved now to 
pick my bones." Dr. Cooper, to whom he said this, re- 
plied: "The nearer the bone the sweeter the meat." 

Yet Franklin was pleased, nevertheless, at their re- 
gard for him, and refused to accept any pay for his ser- 
vices in behalf of his fellow citizens. Investments in 
real estate in Philadelphia had turned out well, and 
he was in affluent circumstances. He lived in a 
house which his faithful wife had built several years 
before. Surrounded by his daughter and her fam- 
ily, his friends and his books, the old man enjoyed a 
quiet life in his garden with cribbage and chess. He 
speaks in his letters in a very affectionate way of his 
grandchildren, whose innocent play pleased his old age. 
Yet he was never idle. Nor had he ceased to be a joker. 
He wrote an article for the "Pennsylvania Gazette," pro- 
fessing to advocate the transportation of Americau 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 97 

felons to England, as English felons had been before 
transported to America. "No due returns," he says, 
''have yet been made for these valuable consignments." 

He failed, however, to seize one opportunity of his 
life. John Fitch visited him often and tried to gain his 
assistance for a new invention — a steamboat. But 
Franklin could see no value in the contrivance and gi'iev- 
ously offended Fitch by offering him money in charity. 

The feebleness of the government under the Articles 
of Confederation caused him, as it did other patriots, 
great anxiety; and especially as reports as to the demor- 
alization of the United States were general in Europe. 
But by private letters he demonstrated to his friends in 
England that things were not so bad as reported. 

In 1786 he wrote to a friend of the manner in which 
he passed his time, in ofBcial labors, in study and recre- 
ation in which music played a part. He had been so 
persistent a worker that he had now and then some 
compunction about being so idle as he thought himself; 
"but another reflection," he says, "comes to relieve me, 
whispering, You know that the soul is immortal; why 
then should you be such a niggard of a little time, wdien 
you have a whole eternity before you ?" 

The famous letter supposed to have been written to 
Thomas Paine upon his work, "The Age of Reason," 
although undated, belongs to this period. Parton be- 
lieves it to have been written not to Paine but to Dr. 
Edward Bancroft. No one ever penned a more telling 
rebuke to infidel writings, and this incident serves to 
show what a remarkable change had come over Frank- 



q8 benjamin franklin. 

lin since he penned his heretical tract in London. He 
still was interested in the education of the young, 
and took great trouble to assist in the location at Lan- 
caster of a college for Germans. 

Meanwhile the condition of the government was be- 
coming unbearable. Its impotence was well shown by 
frequent domestic troubles, riots and general disturbances. 
In fact. Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts was the thing 
that frightened Washington into withdrawing his declin- 
ation to attend the Constitutional Convention. 

Franklin was not at first elected a delegate from Penn- 
sylvania; but was added afterward, as Parton says, in or- 
der that, in case Washington still refused, there might be 
some one on whom all could unite as president of the 
convention. It is not necessary to say much about this 
convention, a subject on which vSo much has been writ- 
ten. It is to be noted, however, that Franklin ranged 
himself against a strongly centralized government. That 
is, he allied himself with what came to be the Jefferson 
party and not with the Hamilton party. 

This fact no doubt had weight in forcing the conven- 
tion away from a form of government whose centralizing 
tendencies would have been too strong to be wise. As 
he had practiced, so he now preached. He opposed 
granting any salary to the president, as he had refused 
to accept any salary as president of Pennsylvania. The 
honor was a reward sufficient for any man. 

Such was the spirit of the early years of devotion to 
liberty, and such the romantic fervor of the first pure love 
of freedom. Would that more of it was left! He was 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 99 

in favor of a legislature of one house and against the 
equality of states. When the struggle between the op- 
posing parties on the last named subject seemed about to 
disrupt the convention, his compromise saved the Union. 
When the Constitution was finished, he found as many 
others did, that not all parts were satisfactory to him per- 
sonally, yet he heartily supported it. When the instru- 
ment was signed, looking toward the President's chair on 
which a sun was painted, he said he had not up to that 
time been able to tell whether it was arising or a setting 
sun; but on the happy termination of the convention he 
said: ''I have the happiness to know that is a rising and 
not a settiiig sun." 

It is remarkable that Franklin was one of only three 
or four persons in the convention that thought prayers 
necessary at the opening of each session. 

After the adjournment he exerted himself to promote 
the adoption of the Constitution, and when ten states had 
ratified, they had in Philadelphia a great celebration and 
and a procession in which was a printer's car which struck 
off, as it proceeded, and scattered among the people, a 
ditty which Franklin himself had written. 

He was elected a third time President of Pennsylvania 
although eighty one years old, and said of himself: 

"I seem to have intruded myself into the company of 
posterity, when I ought to have been abed and asleep." 
Such was his idea of death. 

His growing infirmities warned him that his end was 
not far off, and he looked forward to the end of life with 
complaisance, for he was, he said,^ growing curious to 



1 r ^ 

L.Oi V. 



loo BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

find out something of another world. He suffered 
much pain, too, at intervals, btit bore it with patience 
and firmness. He wrote to a friend in November of 
1788: "People that will live a long life and drink to 
the bottom of the cup must expect to meet with some of 
the dregs." 

Providence allowed him to live long enough to see his 
country, for which he had long labored, established un- 
der a secure and vigorotis government with George Wash- 
ington, whom he supported, as its first President. 

He lived long enough, also, to see the beginning of 
that terrible upheaval — the French Revolution. He was 
profoundly interested, yet he did not understand the gen- 
ius of the movement as Jefferson did. Frauklin, wdien 
in France, had seen the fair side of the French life; he 
had known the educated class of nobility; he had not 
explored the lower walks of life, the highways and hedg- 
es, as Jefferson had, to see how the peasant lived and 
toiled and died. 

The last months of his life he spent mostly in bed, an 
acute sufferer. Yet when the pain ceased for a time he 
was again at work. 

He was a hater of slavery and one of his last acts was 
a memorial addressed to Congress, as president of the 
abolition society, to discourage the slave trade and* re- 
move that "inconsistency from the character" of Ameri- 
can government. And as late as March 23, 1790, he 
wrote a characteristic answer to the pro-slavery speech in 
Congress of Jackson of Georgia. 

Franklin died April 17, 1790, aged eighty four years 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. loi 

and three months. France mourned over his death as 
sincerely and with more recognition of his great worth 
than his own country. Mirabeau delivered a eulogy 
and the President of the National Assembly commu- 
nicated to Washington their resolution to wear mourn- 




Franklin's Grave, Christ's Churchyard, Cur. Fifth and Arch Streets, 
Philadelphia. 

ing for three days. Yet after all he had done for his 
country he never succeeded in getting Congress to put 
aside its indifference enough to audit his accounts and 
discharge them. 

It has been well said that Franklin attracts even in 
the readers of his life a personal regard. He had many 



102 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

friends and they were close and constant. Even in Eng- 
land dnring the war this was true . He had some enemies. 
The proprietary party hated him bitterly and that feeling 
has been handed down. The Adams party in New Eng- 
land disliked him and have handed down that dislike to 
their descendants. 

Franklin was great intellectually as few men have been 
great. He was great in his diversity of powers; and his 
range of activities was remarkable. He was great mor- 
ally, and he had a very wide and remarkable influence 
as a moral teacher. His moral teachings, although not 
always of the highest type, are helpful and wholesome. 

He never announced himself as a follower of Jesus 
Christ, and it is unfortunate that it is true. He wrote to 
Dr. Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College, that he 
thought the system of morals taught by Jesus of Nazar- 
eth the best world ever saw or was likely to see; yet he 
had to confess "some doubts as to his divinity," although 
on that subject he did not pretend to dogmatize. It 
seems certain, however, that he underwent an enormous 
change in his lifetime in his attitude toward religious and 
moral truth. 

As he grew older he drew nearer and nearer to the 
Christian ideal of faith as w^ell as works. For when his 
end was about to come, he had a picture of Christ upon 
the Cross placed where he could keep his e3'es upon it, 
and with his eyes upon that pledge of sacrifice he died. 
For he was accustomed to say: 

"That is the picture of one who came into the world 
to teach men to love one another." 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 103 

ANECDOTES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF FRANKLIN. 

FRANKLIN WITHOUT PERSONAL ENEMIES, HIMSELF EV- 
ERY man's friend. 

In the year 1784, Benjamin Franklin, then seventy- 
eight years old, while United States Minister to France, 
wrote to his distinguished friend, John Jay, thus: 

"I have, as yon observe, some enemies in England, 
but they are my enemies as an American. I have also 
two or three in America who are my enemies as a jui/iis- 
tcr^ but I thank God there are not in the whole w^orld 
any who are my enemies as a 7nan^ for by His grace, 
through a long life, I have been enabled so to conduct 
myself that there does not exist a human being who can 
justly say, 'Benjamin Franklin has wronged me.' This, 
my friend, is in old age a comfortable reflection." 

franklin's sagacity and wisdom. 

Franklin's practical sagacity and wisdom are shown 
in the following incidents: 

In the legislature of Pennsylvania Franklin found 
great difficulty in carrying out the necessary measures 
for military defense, because a majority of the mem- 
bers were Quakers, who, though friendly to the success 
of the Revolution, refused to vote the supplies of war. 



104 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

So Franklin caused them to vote appropriations to buy 
bread, flour, wheat, or other gram. The governor said, 
"I will take the money, for I understand their meaning, 
— other grain is gunpowder." 

Franklin afterward moved the purchase of a fire-en- 
gine, saying to a friend, "Nominate me on the commit- 
tee, and I will nominate you, we will buy a great gun, 
which is certainly a fire-engine. The Quakers can have 
no objection to that." Matthew Arnold, in his address 
on Emerson in this country, said that he considered Ben- 
jamin Franklin the greatest of all Americans. 

THE SILVER HOOK. 

The following incident contains a good hint to men 
who are not blacksmiths; a hint to such as have learned 
useful trades, but have not learned what is infinitely 
more valuable; that divine philanthropy which alone can 
make their trades their delight, and thus strew life over 
with roses: 

Dr. Franklin observing one day a hearty young fellow, 
whom he knew to be an extraordinary blacksmith, sit- 
ting on the wharf, bobbing for little mud-cats and eels; 
he called to him. 

"Ah, Tom, what a pity 'tis you don't fish with a sil- 
ver hook. ' ' 

The young man replied, "I am not able to fish with a 
silver hook." 

Some days after this the doctor, passing that way, saw 
Tom out at the end of the wharf again, with his long 
pole bending over the flood. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 105 

''What, Tom," cried the doctor, "have you not got the 
silver hook yet?" 

"God bless you, doctor,'' cried the blacksmith, "I'm 
hardly able to fish with an iron hook." 

"Poh! poh!" replied the doctor, "go home to your an- 
vil; and you'll make silver enough in one day to buy 
more and better fish than you would catch here in a 
month." 

FRANKLIN AND THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED 
STATES. 

The final vote on declaring the colonies of the United 
States free and independent was taken July 4, 1776, at 
two in the afternoon. About four hours later a commit- 
tee consisting of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and 
Thomas Jefferson, were appointed to prepare a Great 
Seal for the new republic. On the ninth of July, 1776, 
the committee met in the London Coffee House, which 
still stands on the southwest corner of Front and Market 
Streets, Philadelphia. 

Several designs were submitted at this and subsequent 
meetings by Du Simitiere and Jefferson, with sugges- 
tions by Adams and Franklin. The one proposed by 
Du Simitiere had the arms of the several nations from 
whence America had been peopled, as English, Scotch, 
Irish, Dutch, German, etc., each in a shield. 

On one side of them he placed Liberty with her cap; 
on the other a rifleman in his uniform, with his rifle in 
one hand, and a tomahawk in the other, that dress and 
weapons being peculiar to America. 



io6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Dr. Franklin proposed for the device, INIoses lifting 
his wand and dividing the Red Sea, and the char- 
iot of Pharaoh, and his host overwhelmed with the 
waters. 

For a motto, he suggested the words of Cromwell, 
"Rebellion to tyrant.s is obedience to God." 

Nothino- came 
of the action of 
this committee. 
Later on other 
committees 
were appointed 
and other de- 
signs submitted. 
At last Congress 
in June, 1782, 
adopted the 
present Seal of 
the United 
States. 

The design of 
this Seal was 
sent by John Adams from England to Charles Thomson, 
the Secretary of Congress, to whom the whole matter 
had been referred. 

It is very interesting to note that a British aristocrat 
gave us the design. For it was furnished by Sir John 
Prestwich, a baronet of the west of England, who was a 
fast friend of the Americans during the Revolutionary 
war, and an accomplished antiquarian. 




Du Simitiere's Design for Seal of the United States. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 107 

TRUK INDKPEXDKXCE. 

This anecdote contains much that is suggestive to the 
modern press. 

Soon after his establishment in Philadelphia, Franklin 
was offered a piece for publication in his newspaper. Be- 
ing very busy, he begged the gentleman would leave it 
for consideration. The next day the author called and 
asked his opinion of it. 

^'Why, sir," replied Franklin, "I am sorry to say 
that I think it highly scurrilous and defamatory. 
But being at a loss on account of my poverty whether 
to reject it or not, I thought I would put it to this issue 
—at night, when my work w^as done, I bought a twopenny 
loaf, on which, with a mug of cold water, I supped heart- 
ily, and then wrapping myself in my greatcoat, slept very 
soundly on the floor till morning, when another loaf and 
a mug of water afforded me a pleasant breakfast. 
Now, sir, since I can live very comfortably in th:s 
manner, why should I prostitute my press to personal hat- 
red or passion, for a more luxurious living?" 

One cannot read this anecdote of our American sage 
without thinking of Socrates' reply to King Archilaus, 
who had pressed him to give up preaching in the dirty 
street of Athens, and come and live with him in his splen- 
did courts. "Meal, please your majesty, is a halfpenny a 
peck at Athens, and water I can get for nothing." 

ERAXKLIX AXD THE WIG. 

Nothing can better illustrate the spirit which Dr. Frank- 
lin carried with him to the court of Uouis XVI, and the 



io8 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 




Signatures of the Commissioners to 
France. 



Spirit he found there than this story: On Dr. Franklin's 
arrival at Paris, as Plenipotentiary from the United 
States, the king expressed a wish to see him immediate- 
ly. As there was no going to the court of France in 
those days without permission of the wigmaker, a wig- 
maker, of course, was 
sent for. In an instant 
a richly dressed Mon- 
sieur, his arms folded 
in a prodigious muff of 
furs, and a long sword 
by his side, made his 
appearance. It was the 
king's wigmaker, with 
his servant in livery, a 
long sword by his side, too, and a load of sweet-scented 
bandboxes, full of "de wig," as he said, "de superb wig 
for de great Docteer Frankline. " 

One of the wigs was tried on — a world too small! 
Bandbox after bandbox was tried; but all with the same 
ill success! The wigmaker fell into the most violent 
rage, to the extreme mortification of Dr. Franklin that a 
gentleman so bedecked with silks and perfumes should, 
notwithstanding, be such a child. 

Presently, however, as in all the transports of a grand 
discovery, the wigmaker cried out to Dr. Franklin, that 
he had just found out where the fault lay — "not in his 
wig as too small; Oh, no! his wig was not too small; but 
de docteers head too big; great deal too big." Franklin, 
smiling, replied, that the fault could hardly lie there; for 



BEN7AMIN FRANKLIN. 109 

his head was made by the Ahnighty himself, who 
was not hkely to err. Upon this the wigmaker took in 
a little; but still contended that there must be something 
the matter with Dr. Franklin's head. 

It was at any rate, he said, out of the fashion. 

He begged Dr. Franklin would only "please for re^ 
member, dat his head had not de honeer to be made in 
Paree. No, no! for if it had been made in Paree, it not 
bin more dan half such a head. None of the French 
noblesse," he declared, "had a head any ting like his. 
Not de great Duke d' Orleans, nor de grand monarque 
himself had half such a head as Docteer Frankline.''' And 
he did not see, he said, "what business anybody had 
wid a head more big dan de head of de great monarque." 

Pleased to see the poor wigmaker recover his good hu- 
mor, Dr. Franklin could not find it in his heart to put a 
check to his childish rant, but related one of his fine anec- 
dotes, which struck the wigmaker with such an idea of 
his wnt, that as he retired, bownng most profoundly, he 
shrugged his shoulders, and with a look most significant- 
ly arch, he said: 

"Ah, Docteer Frankline! Docteer Frankline! I no won- 
der your head too big for my wig. I 'fraid your head be 
too big for all de French nationg." 

OUR FIRST FLAG. 

Asa nation we are the most pictorial in the world, and 
we began early to read from symbols, our first standard 
of independent rule being the design of a rattlesnake cut 
in thirteen pieces, representing the thirteen colonies, bear- 
ing first the motto, "Unite or die," and later the signifi- 



no BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

cant warning, "Dont tread on me," the rattlesnake being 
typified in an attitude prepared to strike. 

Dr. Franklin, seeing the emblem one day wrote of it 
in this admirable explanation: 

"On inqniry and from study I learn that the ancients 
considered the serpent an emblem of w^isdom, and in some 
attitudes of endless duration. Also, that 'countries are 
often represented by animals peculiar to that country. 

The rattlesnake is found nowhere but in America. 
Her eye is exceedingly bright and without eyelids— em- 
blem of vigilance. She never begins an attack and she 
never surrenders— emblem of macrnanimitv and couraoe. 

She never w^ounds even her enemies until she Q:ener- 
ously gives them warning not to tread on her, which is 
emblematical of the spirit of the people who inhabit her 
country. She appears apparently weak and defenseless, 
but her weapons are neverthelss formidable. Her poison 
is the necessary means for the digestion of her food but 
certain death to her enemies — showing the power of 
American resources. 

Her thirteen rattles, the only part which increases in 
nnmber, are distinct from each other, and yet so united 
that they cannot be disconnected without breaking them 
to pieces— showing the impossibility of an American re- 
pnblic without a union of states. 

A single rattle will give no sound alone, but the ring- 
ino^ of the thirteen toQ;ether is sufficient to startle the 
boldest man alive. She is beautiful in youth, and her 
beauty increases with age. He tongue is forked as the 
lightning,and her abode is among the impenetrable rocks." 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



Ill 



THE STORY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



FOR A SCHOOL OR CLUB PROGRAMME. 



Each numbered paragraph is to be given to a pupil or 
member to read, or to recite, in a clear, distinct tone. 

If the school 
or club is small, 
each person 
may take three 
or four para- 
graphs, but 
should not be 
required to re- 
cite them in suc- 
cession. 

1 , Benjamin 
Franklin was born 
in Boston, Januarx 
17, 1706. 

2. His father, 
J OS i a h Franklin, 
was of English des- 
cent. He was an 
excellent man, of a 
firm and healthy 
texture of charac- 
ter, "fond of me- 
chanical opera- 
tions, skilled in 
drawing and much 
given to music. 

3. Franklin says of him, "He turned our attention to what was 
good, just and prudent in the conduct of life." At the age of eighty- 
nine years he died, honored by all who knew him. 

4. Franklin's mother was Abiah Folger, a daughter of Peter 
Folger, one of the early settlers of New England, whom Cotton 
Mather styled "a godly and learned Englishman." He was a writer 




Birthplace ul Fianklin, Milk Street, 
Boston. Mass. 



112 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

of political verses, and a zealous opponent of the persecution of the 
Quakers. 

5. His mother lived to be eighty-five years of age, bequeathing 
to her son Benjamin her splendid physical traits. 

6. When young Benjamin was eight years old he was sent to the 
Boston Grammar School. He was a ready learner, and made rapid 
progress in his classes, rising from one to the other. 

7. Such was his precocity that his father thought of sending him 
to Harvard College and educating him for the ministry. But the 
wants of his large family were so numerous that he could not afford 
the expense of this. 

8. At the age of ten years, his father took him into his chandlery 
to teach him his own trade, but it was so distasteful to the boy that 
he was permitted, two years later, to become an apprentice to his 
brother James, a printer. 

g. This action of his father prevented the carrying out of Benja- 
min's desire to run away and go to sea. 

10. His natural fondness for knowledge made him an insatiable 
reader. He devoured all the books he could borrow, and would often 
pass the greater part of the night in reading or study. 

11. The few shillings that found their way into his hands were 
all laid out in books instead of sweetmeats, of which children are 
generally so fond. Daniel Defoe, the author of '"Robinson Crusoe," 
"The Pilgrim's Progress," "Plutarch's Lives," were among his favor- 
ites. But soon he was studying Locke's "Essay on the Human Under- 
standing," and the Port Royal Logic, heavy works for one of his ten- 
der years. 

12. When Benjamin was fifteen years of age, his brother James 
began to print the "New England Courant," the third newspaper 
published in Boston and the fourth in America. 

13. For this paper young Franklin wrote anonymous articles of 
great merit, which were attributed to men of eminence in the colony. 

14. To improve his style Benjamin read "The Spectator," and 
endeavored to imitate it. He was careful and laborious in his writ- 
ings, and in the end acquired a style noted for its singular purity and 
simplicity. 

15. The "New England Courant" soon got into trouble, for the 
freedom with which men and events were handled by Benjamin. 

16. In 1723 the General Court ordered that the paper should not 
be published, "except it first be supervised." 

17. When he was seventeen years old Franklin resolved to 
leave Boston and seek his fortune elsewhere; and in October, 1723, 
set sail in a sloop for New York. 

18. Unable to find employment in New York, he set out for 
Philadelphia, which he reached after many hardships and adventures. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 113 

19. With hands soreiy blistered from rowing, with but a dollar 
in his pocket, and without a friend he began life in the Quaker city. 

20. With a roll under each arm, and eating a third, he set out in 
search of a lodging and employment. 

21. There were but two printers in Philadelphia at this time, 
and one of them, a Mr. Keimer, took him into his primitive printing 
establishment. 

22. He took comfortable lodgings in the house of a Mr. Read, 
with whose charming daughter, Deborah, he soon fell in love. 

23. Sir William Keith, the Governor of Pennsylvania, became 
attracted to Franklin, and in\ited him to his house, giving him also 
the free use of his library. 

24. The Governor advised him to set up a printing establish- 
ment of his own, and urged him to make a voyage to London to })ur- 
chase the necessary articles, promising to assist him and give him 
letters of introduction. 

25. When the ship sailed, the letter-bag was opened, but not a 
scrap from the Governor did it contain. Franklin, therefore, 
reached London in the spring of 1724, in as destitute a plight as he 
had landed in Philadelphia. , 

26. But he worked hard at his printer's trade for a little more 
than two years in London, and saved the greater part of his wages. 

27. In the autumn of 1726 he made his way back to Philadelphia, 
and in 172Q became editor and proprietor of the "Pennsylvania Ga- 
zette," which he made very popular. 

28. On September i, 1730, he married Miss Deborah Read, and 
lived most happily with her until her death, December 19, 1774. 

29. Though devoting himself assiduously to business he contin- 
ued his literary pursuits, and organized, in 1731, a club called "The 
Junto," composed of acquaintances of congenial tastes. Out of this 
grew the idea in Franklin's mind of a public library, which after- 
wards developed into that noble institution, the Philadelphia Li- 
bra ry% 

30. In 1732 he began the publication of the famous "Poor Rich- 
ard's Almanac," which he continued to issue regularly for twenty-five 
years. 

31. In 1736 he was made Clerk of the Assembly of Pennsvlvan- 
ia, and in 1737 was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia, and'intro- 
duced into that office the excellent system with which he managed 
all his affairs. 

32. In 1738 he organized a fire company, the first of the kind 
ever established in this countrv. 

33. In 1742 he invented the "open stove for the better warming 
cf rooms," an invention which is still in use. 

34. In 1744 Franklin proposed a volunteer association for the 



114 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



protection of the Province against the savages, and at one time held 
the command of the Pennsylvania volunteers. 

35. In 1747 he was elected to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and 
continued a member of that body for ten years. 

36. In 1752 he made his renowned experiment in electricity by 
flying a kite of silk during a thunder storm. He received the degree 
of M. A. from Harvard and Yale Colleges. 

37. In 1753 he was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General of the 
British Colonies, on account of his excellent management of the 
Philadelphia Post Office. , 




r^-'- - — 



Philadelphia Library, Pounded by Franklin. 
(From an Old Print.) 

38. In 1754 Franklin became a conspicuous figure in Continen- 
tal politics, and was sent to the Congress at Albany as a Commission- 
er from Pennsylvania. • 

39. At the Albany Congress Franklin brought forth the first co- 
herent scheme ever propounded for securing a permanent Federal 
union of the thirteen colonies. But public opinion_ was not yet ripe 
for the adoption of the bold and comprehensive ideas which it con- 
tained, and, in consequence, it was rejected. 

40. In 1755, by the steadfast personal exertions of Franklin, 
General Braddock was enabled to obtain horses, wagons and provis- 
ions for his expedition. For the payment of these Franklin pledged 
his own property. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 115 

41. In 1757 Franklin was sent over to England as agent for 
Pennsylvania, to plead the cause of the Assembly before the privy 
council. The duties of the position kept him five years in England. 

42. His discoveries and writings had won him now a European 
reputation, and in 1762 he received the degree of LL.D. from the 
Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh. 

43. In 1764 Franklin was ^^nt again to England as agent for 
Pennsylvania, and was instructea to make every effort to prevent the 
passage of the Stamp Act. 

44. But when the obnoxious measure was passed in 1765, Frank- 
lin counselled submission. "In this case, however, the wisdom of 
this wisest of Americans proved inferior to the 'collective wisdom' of 
his fellow countrymen." The Stamp Act was soon repealed, and 
Franklin's testimony, in which was evinced his strong sense and va- 
ried knowledge, contributed greatly to the desired result. ■ 

45. In 1774 Franklin was tried before the privy council for his 
connection with the historical "Hutchinson Letters." He was vilified 
and abused, but bore the ordeal nobly. The infuriated King dis- 
missed him the day after the affair, from his position of Deputy Post- 
master-General. 

46. When the demand was made on Massachusetts for the pay- 
ment of the tea destroyed in Boston Harbor, Franklin went so far as 
to advise Massachusetts to make the payment, fearing that war would 
result if it were refused. 

47. Samuel Adams, on hearing of this, said: "Franklin maybe 
a good philosopher, but he is a bungling politician," "In this in- 
stance Franklin showed himself less far-sighted than Adams and the 
people of Massachusetts." 

48. After using all his efforts at conciliation between the King 
and the colonies, which he found fruitless, he returned to America, 
arriving in Philadelphia May 5, 1775, to find the shedding of blood 
had just begun. 

49. When the news of the Battle of Bunker Hill reached him, 
he wrote to his friends in England, "Americans will fight, England 
has lost her colonies forever." 

50. When Samuel Adams proposed his plan for a confederation 
the colonies, which did not meet with general approval, that sturdy 
patriot said, "If none of the rest will join, I will endeavor to unite the 
New England colonies in confederating." 

51. Franklin said to Adams, "I approve your proposal, and if 
you succeed I will cast in my lot among you." 

52. Franklin earnestly supported the proposition for a Declara- 
tion of Independence, and affixed his signature to it on July 4, 1776. 
He said, with grim humor, after the signing, "Now, gentlemen, we 
must all hang together, or we shall hang separately." 



Ii6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

53. By never wasting time Franklin had acquired a knowledge 
of the French language, with Italian and Spanish also, besides get- 
ting some acquaintance with the Latin. He was thus fitted for the 
important position of Commissioner Plenipotentiary to the Court of 
France in 1776, at the age of seventy-one, 

54. He became the most popular man in Paris, and was over- 
whelmed with attentions from the learned, the nobility and. the com- 
mon people. He rendered, while in France, the most signal services 
to his beloved country. 

55. He returned to America in 1785, and was soon after elected 
President of the Supreme Executive Council of Philadelphia — the 
Chief Executive of the State. He was twice re-elected, his last term 
expiring in October, 1788. He was a delegate to the Federal Conven- 
tion of 1787, which framed the Constitution of the United States. 

56. On April 17, i7qo, this distinguished American passed away 
at the age of eighty-four years and three miOnths. 

57. The mortal remains of Franklin were laid away to rest in 
the northwest portion of Christ churchyard at the corner of 5th and 
Arch Streets, Philadelphia, under a plain marble stone, inscribed, 
"Benjamin and Deborah Franklin." 

58. We can truly say of Franklin, "He was at once philosopher, 
statesman, diplomatist, scientific discoverer, inventor, philanthropist, 
moralist and wit; while, as a writer of English, he was surpassed by 
few men of his time. He is in many respects, the greatest of Ameri- 
cans, and one of the greatest men whose names are recorded in his- 
tory." 



PROGRAMME FOR A FRANKLIN EVENING. 

1. Music. 

2. Anecdotes of Franklin. 

3. Essay — Franklin's Youth and Apprenticeship. Discussion of 
same. 

4. Reading of Extracts from Poor Richard's Almanac. 

5. Music— Vocal or Instrumental. 

6. Essay — The first American Flag, and Franklin's Interpreta- 
tion of its Meaning. Discussion of the same. 

7. Essav — ''Eripint ccclo fulmeji, sccptmiDiqiie tyrannisT Trans- 
lated: "He snatched the lightning from heaven and the scepter from 
tyrants." 

8. Music. 

Q. Franklin as a Diplomatist. 
10. Song — "America." 



BEXJAMIX FRAXKLIX. n; 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. 

JJ7ir/r t\ the tablet that marks the birthplace of Benjamiji I^rciJik- 
lifi? What zvas the name of Franklin s father? Of what stock did 
his f amity come ? li 7tat 7i'as their station ? 

What was the name of Frank /in s mother? Of what stock did 
she con/e ? 

I J 'hat may be said of the hereditary traits of Franklin ? What is 
said of fosiah's favorite brother? What did Benjamin s father in- 
tend him to be? To what occupation was he assigned? What were 
the books he read? In what circumstances did he become a printer? 

How did he correct the faults of composition ? What unorthodox 
books did he read? How did Franklin come into notice as a writer? 
Why did he take ship for New York, and when ? 

In what condition did he arri7>e in Philadelphia? What eve7it 
. specially marked his entrance? 

How did he come to the notice of the Governor? What was the 
reason of his return to Boston, and its result? How did Franklin 
come to go to Fngland? With what result? What were the chief 
features of his life in London ? 

• /;/ what spirit did he return to America ? What was the famous 
ei)itai)h Franklin composed? What were the chief features of his re- 
lations to his partners in printing? What was Franklin s relation 
to buunes^ advertisins;? How did Franklin increase the circulation 
of his paper? What was the beginning of American debating socie- 
ties? One of the chief questions Franklin favored? 

When and to whom was Franklin married? When was the 
turning point in Franklin s career? What were the chief features in 
his new life? 

For what was Franklin remarkable? What is said of his estab- 
lishment of a public library? What is said of Franklins wife? Of 
their mode of living? Of his tendency to free thinking? Of his use of 
a Litur<ry ? Of his struggle after moral perfection ? 

What is said of "Poor Bichard's Almanac"? Of Franklin's study 
of languages? Of chess? Of music? 

How did his political promotion begin? What is said of Wliite- 
Held ? Of the Franklin Stove ? Of the A m eric an Philosoph ical Soci- 
ety ? ' Of Franklins love of nature? Of plain truth ? Of Frank hn as 
a soldier'^ Of the Ouakers and defensive warfare? Of the different 
-Positions Franklin'^filled? Of his various schemes? Of plaster as a 
fertilizer? Of his work as postmaster? Of the degrees conferred up- 
on him^ Of his appointment as Commissioner? Of Pranktins 
'' Short Hin ts" ? Of his relations with Governor Shirley? Of his 
letters on "7W taxation without represen-tationf 

What is said of Braddock' s campaign ? Of Franklins discover- 
ies in electricity? Of his relations to the proprietaries of Pennsylvan- 



ii8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

ia? To London? Of his visit to E^tgland and the persojts he iJiet 
there? Of the fall of Quebec? Of Franklin s return home? Of 
F?-anklijt s son IVilliam? Of Frankli7i s relatio7t to John Penn? Of 
his pamphlei 071 ''Cool Thoughts,'' etc.? Of the wider fields of 
F7-ankli7i s operatio7is? Of the Sta77ip Act? Of Fra7ikli7i s mistake 
in favoring it? 

What is said of F7-a7tkli7i as a wit7iess befo7'e Parlia77ie7it? Of 
the repeal of the Stainp Act? Of the sto7'ies afloat as to A77ie7'ica? Of 
the i7idiffere7ice to A7ne7'ica7i affairs i7i Engla7id? Of i7i teres t i7i 
Fra7ice? Of his 7-elation to Whitefield? To Sa77iuel Ada?7is? Of 
Frankli7i s enernies? Of the ad)nissio7i by England of her errvr? Of 
the effect upo7i the colonies? Of Frankli7i s efforts to pr'ornote good 
will? Of various English statcs)iicn? Of Fra7ikli7i s relations to 
the77i? Of Fra7iklin s childri)! and grandchildren? Of Mrs. Fra7tk- 
li7i ? Of Fra7ikli7i's varied discoveries, etc. ? 

What is said of Fra7ikli7i s E7iglish acquainta7ices? Of the Roy- 
al Society? Of''TheHutchi7iso}i Letters?'" Of the atte77ipt to b7'ibe 
Frafikli7i? Of Arthur Lee? Of Frank li7is 7-etur7t home? Of his 7'e- 
latio7ts to Strahan? To Dr. Priestley? Of his services as delegate? 
Of his love of jokes? Of his plan of union? Of his various positio7ts 
and co7istructions ? 

What is said of the ope7'ations of Deane a7id Beaumarchais in 
Fra7ice? Of Frankli7i s risk i7t t7yi7tg to reach France? Of the rela- 
tions of Dea7ie and Lee to each other? Of the cause of Deane s recall? 
Of Fra7ikli7i's estirnate of hi77i? Of p/ivateering and F7-ankli7i s 7'e- 
latio7t to it? Of Franklin and Vefgennes? Of the capture of p7'iso7i- 
ers? Of F7-ankli7i and Tho77ias Morris? Of Frankli7i a 7id Arthur 
Lee? 

I Vhat is said of the year lyyy ? Of the 77ieeting of the conunission- 
ers? Of the jou7-ney of Austi7i to F7-ance? Of the meeting at Ver- 
sailles? Of F}-anklin and Goard? Of the t7-eaty of alliance between 
France and the United States? Of the bill of Lord North ? Of the 
actio7i by Co7ig7'ess? Of the juission of Austin to England? Of the 
the treaty of co/7i7ne7-ce? Of Voltai7-e and Frankli7i? What was the 
general estimate of Lee? What is said of Joh7i Ada7ns? Of the at- 
te77ipt to ruin Franklin? Of John PaulJo7ies? Of F7'a7ikli7i' s fina7i- 
cial duties and difficulties ? Of Arthur Lee and Izard? Of Co7igress 
and Willia77t Te77iple F7'anklin? Of Cong7-ess and Er-anklin? Of 
Ada77is and Ve7'gennes? Of the efforts of England to reach a7i under- 
standing with the United States? 

Of his fina7icial circujJistances? Of Fra7iklin as a joker? Of 
Of John Fitch? Of the letter to his friend? Of his letter to Tho77ias 
Paine? Of his interest in education? Of Shays rebellio7i? Of the 
Co7istitutio7ial Convention? ^Of Fran kli7i' s attitude? Of his rei7iark 
about the sim ? Of his wish for prayers for the daily sessio7is? Of his 
action after adjour7i77ient? Of his further election and consequent re- 
77iarks? Of the Fre7ich Revolution? Of Frank li7f s relatio7i to sla- 
very? What is said of Spain? Of fay whe7i he reached Pa7'is? Of 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 119 

Jay a?id Vergcnnes? Of Jay s differc7ice with Franklin ? Of Jay and 
Adams? O f Shelbi(rne? Of Franklin and Adams? Of Franklin 
in lySs and ijS^? Of Jefferson as Frankliii s sticeessor? Of Frank- 
lin as he returned home? Of his reception in Philadelphia? Of his 
further election to office? Of his death? Oj his sejitiment in France? 
Of Frankli7i s attractiveness? Of his intellectiial and moral powers? 
Of the change in his attitude toward moral and religious truth? 



SUBJECTS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. 

/. Franklin as a Boy. 

2. Frankliji as a Prijiter. 

J. Franklin as Postmaster-General . 

4. Franklin as a Moralist and Wit. 

J. Frafiklin as a ScieJitist. 

6. Franklin s Relations with the English Parliainent. 

7. Frankliji as a Minister Plenipotentiary to France. 

8. Frajiklin s Relations to Edit cation. 
g. Franklin as a Soldier. 

10. Franklin and the Hutchinson Letters. 

11. Franklin as a Philanthropist. 

12. Franklin as a Statesman. 



CHRONOLOGICAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF FRANKLIN. 

1706 Franklin was born in Boston, Mass , Jan. 17. 

1 71 5 Sent to Boston Grammar School. 

1718 Apprenticed to his brother James as a printer. 

1 721 Began writing articles for the "New England Courant." 

1723 Set sail for New York. Reached Philadelphia." Returned to 

Boston to solicit aid for printing. 

1724 Went to England at Sir William Keith's request. 
1726 Returned to Philadelphia. 

172Q Established in printing business at Philadelphia. 

1730 Married Miss Read, Sept. i. Established Debating Society, 

which afterwards became the American Philosophical Society. 

1 731 Founded the Philadelphia Library. 

1732 Began publishing "Poor Richard's Almanac." 
1736 Elected Clerk of the Assembly of Pennsylvania. 
1738 Organized the first fire company in the country. 

1742 Invented the Franklin or "Open Stove." 

1743 Projected the University, which afterwards became the L^ni- 

versity of Pennsylvania. 

1744 Assisted in organizing a \'oluntcer Association for the defense 

of the Province, 
1747 Elected to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, of which he contin- 
ued a member for ten years. 



I20 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

1753 Appointed Deputy Postmaster-General for the Continent. 

1754 Began to serve in the Continental Congress. Brought forward 

plan for a Federal Union. 

1755 Assisted General Braddock in obtaining money and supplies. 
1757 Sent by the Assembly to England. 

1762 Received the degree of LL.D. from Oxford and Edinburgh 
Universities. Received the formal thanks of the Assembly. 
1764 Sent again to England, 

1774 The celebrated affair of the "Hutchinson Letters." 

1775 Elected unanimously by the Assembly of Pennsylvania to the 

Second Continental Congress, May 6. 

1776 Sent to join with Arthur Lee and Silas Deane, in securing the 

co-operation of France. 

1778 Signing of the Treaty of Paris, mainly by Franklin's efforts. 

1783 Signing of the Treaty, by which a large portion of the conti- 
nent was secured to the United States, in which the tact of 
Franklin was signally displayed. Negotiation of a treaty 
with Prussia. 

1785-87 Returned to America. Elected President of Pennsylvania, 
and twice re-elected. 

1787 Elected delegate to the Federal Convention. 

1789 Signed Memorial to Congress as President of an Anti-Slavery 

Society, to abolish slavery. 

1790 Died in Philadelphia, April 17. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



For those who wish to read extensively the following works are 
especially commended: 

"Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin." James Parton. 2 Vols. New 

York, 1864. 
"Life of Benjamin Franklin." Jared Sparks. Tuppan & Dennett. 

Boston, 1844. 
"Benjamin Franklin." George Canning Hill. R. Worthington, New 

York, 1864. 
"Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography." D. Appleton & Co., 

New York. 
"Life of Benjamin Franklin." Lindsay & Blakeston. Philadelphia, 

1846. 
"Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." John Bigelow. Philadelphia, 

1868. 
"Life of Franklin." IvL L. Weems. J. P. Lippincott & Co. Philadel- 
phia, 1883. 
"Benjamin Franklin." J.Abbott. Harper's Magazine. ¥01.4:145,289. 
"Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters." Professor John Bach Mc- 

Master. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Boston, 1887. 



